Twisted Fates
by leafs nation
Summary: Circumstances can change on a dime - especially in a world as cruel and unforgiving as this. In a twist of fate, the motor-inn group faces different outcomes than they had to during the main story. Will different people die? Who will be saved? Co-written with the always awesome Rebloxic!
1. Something different

"BACK OFF!"

"Carley…" Lilly chastises, watching as the ex-reporter aims it at a pair sketchy-looking men wandering outside the motor-inn fence. They look pretty damn similar to each other, so Lee's not really surprised when they explain that they're brothers.

"Y'all can call me Andy, and this here's my brother Danny," the man explains, holding up a gas can as a sign that they mean no harm. Lee doesn't really know _what _to think about these guys. "It's a nice place you got here – all fenced up and whatnot."

Kenny, wanting to keep his family safe no matter the cost, steps forward with a look of suspicion on his moustachioed face.

"Yeah? What about it?" he questions, narrowing his eyes as the group remains silent. After just having Mr. Parker turn and try to attack both Katjaa and Lee, you could say that they're more than a little on edge right now.

And a couple of strangers just happen to miraculously show up right after such a scary situation like this? To the motor-inn group, that seems a little bit… suspicious.

Maybe it's just the paranoia getting to them.

"Whoa, whoa, relax! We don't mean nothin' by it!" Andy tries to reassure, smacking the gas can with his hand to prove his point. "Just tryin' to make polite conversation, that's all! A little southern hospitality, if you will!"

Danny tries to step in before things get out of hand. "We live a couple miles up the road, you see. Our land is protected by an electric fence," he explains, getting some looks of surprise from a number of people. "We're runnin' on fumes at the moment, and thought that maybe you could help us out."

Furrowing his brow, Lee folds his arms across his chest as he shields Clementine protectively. Something about these people seems… off.

"What do we get in exchange?" he asks on behalf of the group, not wanting to get the short straw and have these two clowns pilfer their gas away. Not that they really have much use for it other than sitting around the parking lot, but still. "No offense, but it seems kind of odd for a couple of farm boys to be out on the road like this."

"And maybe _you _should mind your god damn manners, asshole!" Larry berates, causing Lee to roll his eyes and try to block out the old man's voice. Honestly, at this point it's gotten way out of hand.

The big guy's been chewing Lee out about the secret for months now, and to be honest he's really surprised that he hasn't just blabbed out the secret to everyone to try and have him tossed out of the group. If he was willing to throw Duck of all people out just on a hunch that he might have been bitten, then you'd think that having a murderer among their ranks would be twice as cause for alarm.

Choosing to turn the other cheek, Lee sighs before telling the brothers that he'll meet them outside the gate. Naturally, his little companion wants to join as well.

"I need you to stay here, alright? You're my last line of defense in case something happens," he tells her, tipping her hat so that it's better fixated on Clem's head. "…and between you and me, I don't think Ben's really up for the job. Too scared, you know?"

Giggling slightly to herself, Clementine reluctantly nods before Lee (along with Kenny and Lilly), move the dumpsters out of the way so that they can bargain with Andy and Danny. Considered to be the little triumvirate of the group, they figure it'd be best for them to listen to the terms and come to a consensus.

They all have their weapons on standby in case this is some kind of trap.

"Y'all are pretty suspicious folks, ain't ya?" Andy comments jokingly, getting a grunt of annoyance from Kenny and Lilly. "Anyways, I suppose you'd want something in exchange… hmm…"

"How are y'all doing on food?" Danny suggests, getting a precautionary glance from (what Lee can only assume) the older brother. "We've got plenty at the dairy."

Glancing over at each other, Lilly, Kenny and Lee widen their eyes in surprise. This could be just what they need! Macon's getting pretty empty as far as supplies are considered, and the kids right now look as though they're starving to death with how scrawny they are.

"Just give us a minute," Lee says, bringing the two over to the side in order to talk it out. "Well, what do you guys think? Should we trust them?"

Kenny shrugs his shoulders as he sighs. "Doesn't seem like we have much of a choice."

"There's _always _a choice!" Lilly retorts, not seeming to trust the brothers too much. "We can just send them on their way, and not have to worry about a couple of hillbillies out in the woods. Plain and simple."

Glaring intently at Lilly, Kenny shakes his head as he prepares to get into _yet another _argument with the woman. They literally couldn't be further apart from each other, and Lee worries that one of these days it's gonna cost them hugely.

There's always a boiling point – Lee knows this better than most.

"_Simple?! _I'll tell you what's simple – getting over to this farm and getting some food into my boy! I ain't willin' to let Duck go hungry just because you were too fucking scared to go!" he argues, getting more riled up by the minute. "If you want to stay behind, then fine. Be my fucking guest, Lilly! But the rest of us are checking the place out, right Lee?"

Oh no… here we go again. This happens literally every single time – Lilly and Kenny are each on their own side, and Lee's caught in the middle. For once, just _once_, he wishes that all three of them would be able to find some common ground. It's not likely to happen at this rate, what with all of the in-fighting that's been going down. But would it really be too much to ask for a day of peace?

…nah, that'd just make things kind of boring around here, wouldn't it?

"How's about this," Lee tries to compromise, wanting to get in good with both parties, "we'll send over a small party – maybe four or five – to go check the place out. If we don't like what we see, we'll high-tail it out of there on the first chance we get. If it's safe enough, we'll send someone back to get the rest of the group over. Sound fair?"

"Fine, I can get behind that," Kenny nods, looking exhaustedly over at Lilly. "What about you, _princess_?"

Giving him the finger, Lilly huffs out a sigh as she frowns and folds her arms.

"…whatever. Let's go get fucking shot by the hicks. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to use us for their target practice…"

"We can hear y'all, you know that?" Andy comments with a raised eyebrow.

Turning around with slight embarrassment, Lee rubs the back of his neck sheepishly as Lilly and Kenny try to avoid eye contact.

"Sorry 'bout that – we've just been through a lot lately," Lee excuses his friends, giving them both a death glare. "Anyways, you've got a deal. We'll give you some gas for your generator, and you give us some food for the group."

Nodding, Andy and Danny head on through the gate with Kenny, who's eyeing them like a hawk as they introduce themselves to the rest of the camp. If they try anything, these brothers will most likely be gunned down in seconds.

Kenny and Carley have kind of got itchy trigger fingers today.

"Do you _really _think this is a good idea?" Lilly comments dryly, causing Lee to dart his head towards the stern woman. He had almost forgotten that she was still there. "Going off with a bunch of strangers is never a good idea, Lee. What if they turn out to be a bunch of freaks or bandits? Do you really wanna put Clem's life on the line like…"

Knowing that she just crossed the line, Lilly stops herself as Lee looks down to the pavement steadily. She didn't really _mean _for that to come out of her mouth – it just happened! She knows that Lee would do anything to keep that kid safe, but sometimes she has to wonder…

…is he really able to fill the void that her parents left behind?

"That's why you and Kenny are gonna come with me," Lee affirms, causing the girl to look up at him in surprise. "If they're really not what they seem to be, then we've gotta keep each other safe. Carley can watch after Clem – I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either."

"Lee… I didn't mean…"

"I know what you meant," Lee shakes his head, telling her not to worry about it. There's more important stuff to be concerned about right now – there's no use in getting pissed about the little things. Patting her shoulder with a smile, Lee returns to the group and leaves the stubborn lady standing there confused.

Did he really trust her _that _much? As far as Lilly's concerned, she's pretty much been nothing but a complete bitch to her ever since they met – why would he be acting like they were practically best friends?

"Huh," Lilly smirks slightly to herself, fighting off the slight fuzzy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

Maybe Lee Everett wasn't as bad of a guy as her Dad had told her before.

…..

Orange, brown, yellow and red leaves rustle in the wind as the autumn encapsulates the survivors in a flurry of colour; making everything seem more vibrant and alive, even in a world of the dead. Lee used to love this time of year back home – heading off with his brother and his friends messing around in the woods. In their teens, they'd usually head up to the top of a local waterfall and chuck rocks down below; scaring the fish away and often pissing off the people that were trying to catch them.

It's not as if it was _illegal _per say, but to them at that age, it certainly felt like they were living life on the edge. Drinking beers and causing shenanigans… sometimes Lee wishes that life could return to that state of simplicity.

Watching as a groundhog scurries back into its hole, the man's stomach rumbles even more as he clutches it hungrily. There better be _something _for all of them to eat back at this place. Lee's not so sure that he can take another missed meal at this point.

"Do you think this place is gonna be safe?" Ben asks timidly, trying his best to make small talk since he's still the newbie around here. "They don't look like the guys who raided my camp, but…"

"But… what?" Mark asks, not wanting the kid to feel unwelcome around here.

Glancing at the back of the brothers' heads as they talk to Kenny up ahead, Ben shrugs his shoulders as he frowns; no doubt reminded that both Travis and Mr. Parker are now dead. The only people from his past life just… gone. Just like that, in the span of a couple of hours.

It's not fair.

"I…I don't know," he confesses, only seeming to aggravate Lilly. "Most of them were wearing ski masks and sunglasses, so it could've been these guys and I'd have had no idea. Maybe they're here to finish the job…"

"Gee, thanks for the vote of fucking confidence," Lilly mutters sarcastically, causing Lee to chuckle slightly at the bickering.

Squinting his eyes, Andy peers over the hill as the sun flashes on them, but he nods all the same as they start heading up. "Shouldn't be too much farther now," he confirms, slowing down a bit to allow Lee and the rest of them catch up. "You know, we found y'all just in time. Without that gas that you folks gave us, we'd have been royally screwed!"

"It's really electric then?" Kenny questions, sharing Lee's slight doubt that this place might not be up to snuff.

Nodding feverishly, Danny scouts up ahead through the treeline as they bank a left through the brush. "The fence keeps them dead ones from creepin' up on us. That baby fries those sons of bitches up like bugs in a zapper."

"Sounds impressive," Mark states, nearly tripping over a tree root as he holds his rifle out in front of him. Fixing himself back up, the glasses-wearing, ex-military man ushers for Ben to keep up with everyone else.

Lee's about to ask about how safe this dairy of theirs actually is, when all of a sudden they hear a bunch of shouting coming from the path to the right of them. If they hadn't just taken that shortcut that Danny lead them to, they would've been caught right in the middle.

"Shit…" Andy curses, glaring at the oblivious bandits fighting amongst themselves down below. "Should've figured we'd run into them sooner or later. Fucking assholes, the lot of 'em…"

"_You think you're gonna cut me outta this?!" _the one bandit snarls, getting all up in the face of the man in front of him. _"You and Gary are always so full o' shit! There's plenty to go around, and there y'all are – hogging the good shit for yerselves!"_

"_Nobody's tryin' to cut you outta anything!" _

"There's only two of them…" Kenny whispers, figuring that there must be more where they came from. "Please tell me you don't know these fuckers…"

"Not personally…"

"Great. That makes me feel so much better."

"_Calm down! Your paranoia's always pissin' everyone off!" _the man says in annoyance, holding his hands out to the side as he speaks.

"_Fuck you! You knew we were hungry, and you guys were keeping it all to yourselves!"_

Leaning to the side behind a bush, Lilly furrows her brow in anticipation as she holds her pistol at her side. If they turn to their direction, then she's gonna be ready for the worst.

"_Yeah, and you know what?" _the bandit mocks, giving the angry man some lip as he stands there. _"We ate it all! What are you gonna fucking do about it?"_

"Oh shit…" Lee whispers, knowing fully well that this is gonna turn ugly.

_BAM!_

"Wh-what the fuck?!" the bandit panics, turning this way and that as the man he was talking to instantly dies from a shot to the head.

But it wasn't from _his _gun.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" the man rages, firing a blast at Mark who still had a smoking rifle in his hands. The bullet rips through the air as the shrapnel pelts him right in the chest; sending him flying backwards as he moans in pain.

Once the rest of the group stands up, the bandit runs for cover deeper into the woods as bullets chase behind him. Danny manages to hit part of the man's leg, but he scurries deeper into the thicket and out of sight before anyone can put him down.

"Son of a bitch…" Kenny snarls before turning back towards the wounded party member. "Jesus Christ, Mark! Just hang in there, man!"

"_Fuuuuuucccckkkk…" _Lilly groans, placing two hands over top of his chest wound in order to try and stop the blood flow. The crimson liquid quickly stains and goes in between her fingers as Mark shudders in agony. "We need to get him somewhere safe right fucking now! He needs medical attention – how much farther is this place?!"

"'Bout a mile or so," Andy comments, pointing straight ahead through the trees. "If y'all intend for the guy to live, then you'd best get a move on! We can try to fix him up at the house!"

Quickly grabbing the man's legs as Kenny grabs his arms, Lee lifts upwards as they follow the farm boys to wherever the hell it is that they're going. They're at the complete mercy of these two now, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Mark's life is truly on the line, and the group barely notices the distance as they keep running until a peaceful-looking property comes into view on the horizon.

"This had better be worth it…" Lilly comments as she rips a bottom part of her grey shirt and fastens it around Mark's wound.

Nodding, Lee sighs as they rummage through the gate; noticing the warning sign for the electric fence before rushing their patient inside.

God help them if this is all a trap…


	2. I need a doctor

_AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Your feedback is always appreciated :D_

_Also, I won't be able to post a link because they don't seem to work on this site, but there's this petition thing going around that I saw on the Walking Dead Game forums for bringing back Lilly for season 3. It might not happen, but it seems to be getting a little bit of attention at least. If you're interested, PM me and hopefully I'll be able to direct you to it._

"He's been standing there for over an hour now," Carley mentions, causing Katjaa to look over in curiosity. The giant, as some of the group have taken to calling him, has been frowning on the second level of the motor-inn ever since Lilly had left, but he hasn't said one word the entire time. "What do you think he's doing up there?"

Shrugging her shoulders, the veterinarian watches as Duck runs like a maniac around the parking lot; chanting out nonsense as his eyes run wild and energized. Perhaps handing him two packets of Skittles and expecting him to just eat them in moderation wasn't the best idea. The boy's practically bouncing off the walls on a normal day, but to see this?

Needless to say, her little boy doesn't really know the meaning of the word _ration_.

"_NUNA NUNA NUNA NUNA NUNA NUNA NUNA NUNA BATMAAAAAAANNNN!" _he belts out, punching and kicking the thin air as Katjaa sighs to herself softly.

"Who knows what goes through that man's head, really?" Katjaa responds, referring back to Carley's original question as she watches Clementine timidly head up the stairs. "Oh dear… that might not be such a good idea…"

Glancing over to see what she's on about, Carley widens her eyes in alarm as she sees Clementine making her way upwards.

"Umm, Clem?" she calls out, jogging up behind the child as she turns around. "Where, uhh… where are you going, kiddo? Don't you want to go play with Duck?"

Looking out to the RV, Clementine watches as Duck spins in circles so many times that he crashes into the vehicle and falls to the pavement; laughing uproariously as Katjaa rushes over to the fallen child.

"_Do you have any more snacks, Mom? I'm starving!" _the boy chirps deliriously, causing Clementine to look at Carley and shake her head.

"I think I'm good," she giggles, holding up one of her masterpieces and waving it around like a flag. "I think that Larry's sad, so I made him a picture! I'm gonna go show it to him!"

Biting her lip, Carley looks nervously up at the man who's really paying the rest of them no mind, and if the reporter's being honest with herself, that's the way that she'd like to keep it. The man's a fucking dick 24/7, and she's had her fair share of verbal squabbles with the guy before.

The last thing that she wants to see is the kid get hurt. Maybe he won't be as vicious to the eight year old as he is to pretty much everyone else (even Lilly at times), but maybe it'd be best not to take that chance.

"Well, here's the thing… didn't you think he was big and scary before?" Carley questions, trying to use smaller words even though Clem's fully positive that she's just as mature and capable as the rest of the adults here. The reality isn't quite what she thinks. "You wouldn't want to bug him knowing that, would you?"

Sticking her finger in her mouth cutely for a moment, Clementine considers her options. Hmm… Carley might have a point there. Larry's not exactly a nice person all the time, but maybe… maybe she can fix that! Maybe all he needs is someone to talk to!

Putting on a big smile, Clementine continues to climb the stairs.

"I want to make him feel good!" she chirps; a spring in her step as she climbs up despite Carley's encouragements not to.

Seeing that nothing's gonna change the kid's mind, Carley rubs her eyes in exhaustion as she walks back over to Katjaa in defeat.

_Assuming he doesn't bash in your head first, Clem, _Carley thinks to herself, her nerves shot as she watches the young girl climb to the second deck.

….

When you get right down to it, there are only three things that Larry Caul really cares about – his daughter, his own health, and whether or not the dumbasses he and Lilly travel with are capable of pulling their own weight. Pretty simple, right? There's no bullshitting in Larry's vocabulary – if he doesn't like you, he'll let you know right to your face.

Honestly, he couldn't give a donkey's ass what you think about him. Do you want to hate his guts and curse his name? Fine, go right the fuck ahead! As far as he's concerned, Larry will let you do and say what you like.

Just be prepared for a good old-fashioned fist to the face when you least expect it.

He's fully aware that he can be a hard-ass, and that's just the way he likes it. Going up through the military ranks as a young adult taught him a whole lot about respect and when to dish it out, and so far nobody in this sorry excuse of a group has earned that from him. Larry's almost 100% certain that if it were just he and Lilly out by themselves, then they wouldn't be stumbling around this place with little to no food.

But (and don't let him know that you know this), the big guy's getting slightly worried, despite his indifferent attitude. Kenny and Lee are reckless morons, and Larry knows that with enough time, the two buffoons are gonna get somebody killed.

Lilly just happened to have gone with them today.

Fucking fantastic.

"…umm… hi…"

Turning his head about an inch to the right, Larry sees the little pipsqueak meekly tugging on his shirt, trying to get his attention. As much as he absolutely _loathes _the person she's usually with, Larry can't really say that he hates little Clementine.

Really, he just doesn't like what Lee's been doing with her; dragging the kid around and babying her to the world.

"Hmph…" Larry grunts, not in the mood to play any of her childish games.

When the tugging keeps on going, and it seems that the kid's too stubborn to stop anytime soon, Larry sighs deeply before turning to her in complete annoyance.

"What the hell do you want?" he demands, staring her down as the girl practically cranks her neck trying to look up at him.

For anyone watching the two of them, it'd be like glancing over at David and fucking Goliath.

Turning the other cheek and choosing to ignore the very foul language spewing out of his mouth, Clementine shyly twirls her foot in a circle as she holds the paper behind her back.

"Umm… well…" she stutters, pulling the drawing out as she studies it in her hands. "You seemed sad when we let Ben into the camp and after Lilly left, so… I made you… a picture?"

She finishes the sentence off like a question, as if she's not even sure if she could call it that. It's a bit of a mess, and not anywhere near her finest work, but Clem was in a bit of a rush to get it finished. The sun's gonna go down soon, and she wanted to draw it out before dinnertime… whenever that was gonna be.

Scowling at the young girl, Larry crosses his arms together stubbornly. "Why would you waste your time on something like this?" he asks, wanting the kid to toughen up just for _once_. "You and Quacks McGee over there should be doing something productive instead of goofing off like this! Did you know that when I was your age, I was already flinging newspapers at houses just to help my family pay the bills? Kids these days, I swear…"

Tilting her head to the side in confusion, and not swayed by the fact that he basically just dissed her artwork, Clementine tries to hold her ground against the six foot, 300 pound man standing in front of her.

"But… there isn't anybody around to throw newspapers for," she points out the obvious, causing Larry to rub his face in frustration.

Point one goes to Clementine.

"Well then… I don't know!" Larry snaps, causing the girl to flinch a little bit. "Build a wooden fort or something! Or better yet, go help out fortifying the wall! You were born with hands for a reason, you know!"

"But I don't have any – "

"Then FIND some," Larry interrupts, knowing fully well that the kid's gonna come up with another excuse about not being able to perform any of these tasks.

Point two – Larry.

Pouting her lip and giving the man some big, convincing doe eyes, Clementine holds out the picture in a pleading manner.

"Please?" she tries, rubbing her arm in discomfort. "I… I don't like it when people feel bad… It makes me feel bad, too! Could you… maybe just… look at it? I made it for you and Lilly when… when we see her next time…"

_That _catches Larry's attention a little bit, and this revelation catches him off guard a little bit. Lilly's typically more fond of keeping an eye out for the kid than Larry is, but the fact that she even bothered… that says something. Huh… Clem was only trying to help out after all.

The guy's angry demeanor softens by the tiniest of fractions, but it's enough to get him to accept the drawing from the little girl. He'll indulge him for the time being.

"I had to be quick," she explains sheepishly, awaiting the cranky, old man's response. "You see? It's so that no matter what, you guys are together all the time!"

Scanning the picture as he scrutinizes over the details, Larry feels… well, he really doesn't know _what _to feel. Ten seconds ago he was giving the kid a lecture on pulling her own weight around here (which in retrospect was a really dumb idea), and now… this.

It's a crudely-drawn picture of him and Lilly holding hands; both smiling at the top of a hill while surrounded by flowers and standing under a bright, yellow sun.

What is this feeling? Could it maybe… be happiness?

…FUCK NO! HAPPINESS IS FOR THE WEAK!

But for her sake, Larry manages to stifle this conflict within himself and give the lady a curt nod of appreciation. "I, uh… umm… thanks, I suppose…"

Smirking brightly, Clementine happily sits down and lets her legs dangle over the ledge. "You're welcome," she beams, before her gaze turns slightly neutral and saddened once again. That's been happening a lot lately – having her short amount of happiness washed away in an instant. "They've been gone for a long time. I hope they're all okay…"

Cracking his neck and leaning against the railing once again, Larry sighs before nodding his head in agreement.

"Me too, kid," he affirms, glaring out into the distance. "Me too."

Third point goes to… drumroll… Clementine! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

After another minute or so of just staring off into space in comfortable silence, the two of them look down to the couches to see Katjaa and Carley with big looks of shock and surprise. Hell, even Duck can't stop staring, and a little while ago he was on a massive sugar high.

Larry, confused as to what's going on, snaps at them angrily – as he is apt to do. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ASSHOLES STARING AT?!"

"Nothing, nothing! It's just that…" Katjaa trails off, unfazed by the man's rage, "well, it's odd seeing you two so… calm! It's a nice change of pace!"

"Clementine tamed the lion!" Duck chips in his two cents, causing a vein to start popping on the side of Larry's neck.

"I didn't think it was possible for _anyone _to connect with you like that – and yet, here it is," Carley comments, giving Clementine a big thumbs up as she giggles shyly. "You go, girl! Good for you!"

Grinding his teeth together, Larry grips the railing so hard that his knuckles turn a dull shade of white. He's shaking the railing so much that Clementine practically swears that he's gonna snap the metal in half with his bare hands – she wouldn't put it past him if that happened.

Larry's about to come back with a nasty threat for their tongue and cheek remarks, but he's interrupted by a physically exhausted Ben banging his fist on the dumpster at the gate. Sweat beads down his forehead as he pants and places his hands on his knees.

"Ben? What happened? Are you alright?" Katjaa asks, sliding the dumpster to the side with Carley's help. "Where's everyone else? Is Ken alright?"

"_Huff… puff… _he's… ugh, fine," Ben wheezes, trying his best to catch his breath without passing out. "But Mark… we saw some bandits in the woods… They were talking about all this crazy stuff, but Mark shot the one guy! So his buddy shot Mark in the chest, and we rushed him over to this farmhouse…"

Larry and Clem arrive as he explains his story as the group glance towards each other worriedly.

"Mommy? What's going on?" Duck asks innocently, yanking on Kat's sweater incessantly. "Is Mark hurt? Is he gonna be okay?"

"…I'm sure he'll be alright, honey. Don't worry about it," Katjaa soothes, trying to reassure her boy even though she's not entirely sure of that herself. Turning towards Carley, she nods before glancing towards Ben once again.

"Do you know where this place is?" Carley asks, determined to be there for her friend. "Can you show us the way?"

Biting his lip, Ben nods timidly as he shrugs his shoulder. "I, uhh… I think so… I'm not always that good with directions, but – "

"_Great_, they sent the idiot back to show us the way," Larry sarcastically remarks, causing Carley to roll her eyes in annoyance. "Should we just follow the yellow brick road? Or maybe you left a trail of bread crumbs for us to find our way there?"

"Ignore him," Carley encourages, readying her pistol as she prepares to lead the charge. She's pretty much their only source of protection out here with her having the only pistol out of the six of them. "Come on, everyone. We'll seal the place up behind us, but we've gotta get moving! Ben, get your ass off the fence – we need you up front."

"Can't I have just a five minute break? I've been running for miles!"

"NO!" comes the reply from everyone, as Carley grabs him by the ear like a scolding mother.

As Larry pushes the dumpsters back into place with an ear-shattering screech, Clementine looks back at the motor-inn with hopeful spirits. She wonders if they'll ever come back here, or if this new place that they're going to will have lots of fun things to do? Since it's a farm, will there be horses and cows and all other sorts of animals like she's imagined in her head? The girl's never actually been to a farm before, having lived in the suburbs of Atlanta with her Mom and Dad for her entire life.

Making sure that her walkie-talkie is securely fastened, Clementine sighs before glancing upon the ground. She wonders if Lee will be mad if he finds out that she's been talking to –

"Come on, Clem!" Duck encourages, poking her in the side as she squirms a little bit. "We're gonna go eat something! I'm starving!"

"But… he just ate something," Clem comments in confusion as he dashes ahead with his mother, leaving the girl in the dust as Larry briskly walks past her. Deciding that the big guy is really an old softie deep down, the little girl hatches a sneaky plan as she jogs to walk alongside him.

After about five minutes or so of walking, Clem sneakily slips her hand into his much larger one… but he almost immediately shakes it away.

"Buzz off," he snaps, glaring straight ahead as Clementine frowns in determination. This guy is gonna be her friend even if it kills him, she knows it!

So, about a minute after the first attempt, Clementine casually slips her hand into Larry's once again. The big man sighs deeply before conceding defeat, shaking his head and wondering how the hell this kid could be so persistent.

And more importantly, why the hell she'd want to even _try this _in the first place.

"Fine, you little munchkin," he relents, purposely not looking at the young girl. "You win this round."

Inside, Clementine is absolutely beaming. Larry, the meanest, angriest person that the kid has ever met, is becoming her friend!

Mission accomplished!

Glancing back, Duck chuckles quietly to himself before pointing and turning everyone else's attention to little Jack and the giant beanstalk back there.

As soon as Larry notices all of their smug looks, he gets incredibly pissed off and glares intently at the group members.

"KEEP YOUR EYES UP FRONT, YOU FUCKERS!"

"Swear!"

This is definitely gonna be a long trip for Larry Caul, indeed.

….

_One hour earlier…_

"CLEAR THE TABLE! NOW!" Lilly shouts as the door to the Victorian-style home is held open by Danny. Andy rushes inside to the kitchen as he and Danny's mother starts freaking out, demanding to know what in the blazes is going on.

"My sweet heavens! What happened to you, sweetheart?!" she questions, wondering why a pack of random strangers have rushed into their home carrying a wounded man; his blood slowly dripping onto the hardwood floor.

"It was those bastards in the woods, Mama!" Andy hollers, clearing a path to the kitchen as he dumps a whole bunch of knickknacks from the table onto the floor. Lee and Kenny rush Mark inside as they roughly place him on the wooden, makeshift operating table.

Stopping for a moment to catch their breaths, Lee and Kenny watch as the red-headed woman looks over the injured Mark. The blood has turned a very dark shade of red as it collected on his chest, and the man's having difficulty breathing as his breaths come out in short, successive bursts.

Knowing fully well that they'll have to fully examine the damage done to him, Kenny ungraciously rips Mark's shirt as everyone hisses at the sight. One shotgun blast to the chest, and now there are several entry wounds in his body.

"If that had been any closer, he probably wouldn't have even come close to making it," Kenny remarks, biting his fingernails as he looks over at the St. John family. "What should we do first? The more time we stand here dicking around, the less time he's got!"

"Uhh… right you are. Danny? Be a dear and grab the tweezers, gauze and disinfectant from the closet upstairs, would ya please?" she requests before introducing herself to the three newcomers. "The name's Brenda St. John, honeys. I'd welcome y'all and give you the grand tour, but this ain't exactly the time for pleasantries."

"_Unnnnggghhhhh…." _Mark grunts as his body convulses on the table, which just causes Danny to move faster.

The guy's lost a shit-load of blood already, but thankfully the group managed to keep him elevated enough so that it didn't clot anywhere.

"Now, I ain't no surgeon – just let me make that perfectly clear," Brenda points out, not really helping anyone's spirits. "But I've… well, let's just say that I've worked with patients beforehand when I needed to. We'll try our best to get him all fixed up."

Something about the way she's saying that… it kind of rubs off on Lilly, Kenny and Lee the wrong way. If she's worked with people before, then where are they all now? Why did they end up leaving?

Kenny's feeling especially nervous, as he glances around the room filled with old photographs, dim lighting and creaky floorboards. He can hear Danny rummaging around upstairs for medical supplies, and he can see Andy oddly hanging around the bottom of the stairs; occasionally looking over at them in the kitchen. Does he not want them to see what's happening? Is there something that they don't want them to see?

"Do you think he'll make it?" Lee questions in a hopeful tone of voice. Mark was (and is) still his friend, and to see him go in such a horrific display… There's just no justice in the world anymore.

"We'll do our best, darlin'," Brenda replies, motioning for him to hold down one of Mark's arms. There aren't any restraints around for them to use, so in order to keep Mark from moving around too much, it'll take a team effort to keep him on the table.

If he moves too much… the consequences could potentially be severe. Taking out things that they weren't supposed to, disrupting and damaging his internal organs… _bleh_. None of them want to think about that.

Danny returns with the requested materials a little while later as Brenda gets set to work. She slaps on a pair of dish washing gloves, takes a deep breath and makes sure that everyone's holding the man down.

"Now, hold still, honey. This might sting a little… or a lot…" Brenda warns, though Mark is barely with the rest of them at this point as he groggily looks around the ceiling.

With as much care as she can muster, Brenda places one hand on the man's chest as she takes the tweezers, reaches downwards… and snatches a tiny piece of shrapnel from the man's chest. It's all bloody, sticky and gross, and Lilly practically feels like she's going to vomit by just looking at it.

Mark, however, doubles over in sheer agony.

"AAAAAAGAGGGAHHJGDGD!" he roars out incoherently, crying out in absolute torture as his friends struggle to keep him on the operating table. It takes him a solid five minutes before the pain finally nullifies and he settles back down again.

Brenda looks over at the three of them and shakes her head.

"There's a whole bunch more where that came from – the damages are pretty deep, I reckon," she explains sadly before looking nervously over at Andy. "Andrew, we might need to – "

"_No_," he shakes his head firmly, clearly not on board with whatever she has to say.

"We don't have a choice here, Andy! And don't use that tone of voice with me, young man!" she scolds, causing the man to sigh apologetically. "This feller's gonna go through a whole whack of pain at this rate, and… he might not be able to take it without the drugs."

Clenching a fist angrily, Andy swears under his breath before looking over at Lee and telling him to come meet with him out in the hallway in private. Kenny and Lilly glance over with suspicion, but reluctantly nod for the go-ahead.

Stepping out, Lee folds his arms over his chest as he meets with the older brother face to face.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Lee questions, concerned as to why Andy seemed so reluctant earlier.

Running a hand over his tired face, Andy growls out a sigh as he leans against the wall. "Your friend there ain't gonna make it without medicine," he cuts to the chase, glancing over at Mark's legs which are still visible from the hallway. "All that sufferin's gonna catch up to the guy, and at this rate his body will probably shut down before we even get close to fixin' him up."

Seeing no other option, Lee then shrugs his shoulders in confusion.

"Well if that's the case, then what's the issue? Do you not have anything for this?"

"Well… _sigh_, there's some morphine up in the closet upstairs, but… he's gonna need a shit-load. Two bags at least," Andy explains as Lee widens his eyes. To Lee's own knowledge from his parents, typically morphine is only handed out to the hospitals and not in nearly that big of dosages.

"Christ…" Lee breathes, concerned as to what this could mean.

"Morphine's addictive, so you see," Andy continues as Lee starts to put the pieces together. "That'd be the last of our supply that we'd be able to use, and that much stuff might cause Mark to feel a little… loopy. You may save his skin, but are you willin' to take that risk? Maybe it'd be nicer just to… I don't even know…"

Sighing deeply, Lee closes his eyes and tries to weigh both options. What the hell should he do? This is all on him – the decision falls to him, and him alone. Try to save Mark with a heavy dose of morphine, or just put him out of his misery?

Looking back to Andy, Lee opens his mouth and says…

_**What should he choose? Should he save Mark, or put him down? Cast your vote in the reviews, and thanks for reading!**_


	3. Have any kids of your own?

_AN: Just as a heads up, this might be complete BS, but you know that petition thing for bringing Lilly back? Well, down in the comment section, guess who had something to say about it?_

_Nicki Rapp – the god damn voice actress for Lilly commented on it._

_Holy. Fucking. Shyte. I'm practically convinced it's her because of the way she spoke, and the fact that at the bottom it shows that she's from Oakland, California. _

_How cool would that be?! But anyways, enough rambling. You voted, and we listened. Here's the next chapter!_

"If there's a chance to save Mark, no matter how small," Lee remarks, shaking his head in disbelief, "then we've gotta take it. We need to use the morphine."

"You're positive?"

With slight hesitation, Lee nods as Andy retreats up the stairs. If what he said about using heavy dosages of the stuff is indeed true, then they're going to have to be extremely careful. There are a million and a half things that could go wrong, but Mark will likely die if they don't at least make an attempt.

He owes the man that much at least, after all that he's contributed to the group.

There's still one thing bugging the crap out of Lee, however – why do they really have all of this stuff? What the hell would a bunch of dairy farmers need practically a full closet of morphine, ibuprofen, pain killers and all other sorts of drugs for?

Something doesn't seem right about this place…

"Got 'em," Andy announces, bouncing down the stairs as the two of them re-enter the kitchen; medicine in hand.

Setting the ingredients down on the counter, the St. John's get to work – setting up a wooden pole to hold up the first bag of morphine. Lee assumes that this is some sort of IV that they've put together, as he, Lilly and Kenny silently watch them attack a syringe to some sort of yellow tube sticking out of the bag.

"We're making do with what we've got," Danny explains with a shrug, carefully placing the syringe into Mark's forearm as the drug slowly drips down into his body.

"You're sure that stuff is safe?" Kenny asks quizzically, having a legitimate concern since there isn't any actual label on the bag. Somebody just wrote a big "M" on it in magic marker. "It's not gonna kill him, right? Lee, did you check to make sure that – "

"It's fine, Kenny," he interrupts before he can go any further. These people are doing them a huge service, so the least they can do is trust them to make the right call. For now, anyways. "How long before the drug kicks in?"

Stroking her chin in thought, Brenda predicts that it'll be a solid thirty minutes or so before they can start up the procedure again. In the meantime, she's going to remain by Mark's side to see if anything changes, so she suggests that the rest of them get a bit of fresh air and head on outside.

"I don't reckon that y'all can do anymore for him at this point – lemme handle things from here," she adds, noting that the drug will likely put him to sleep anyhow and eliminate the need to hold him down.

Doing as instructed, Lilly, Kenny and Lee exit the room and anxiously walk out the front door; hoping for some sort of miracle that could possibly save Mark's life.

These days, however, even asking for a little bit of help seems like far too much to ask anymore.

….

"What a fine fucking mess we've got ourselves mixed into…" Kenny sighs, rubbing his eyes as he heads down the front steps. "God damn it… how did this fucking happen?!"

Nobody really has an answer to that question, so Kenny just shakes his head while frowning out in the distance. The man from Florida's got quite a lot to be concerned about lately – his family being the utmost priority on that list. He's still reeling over the fact that they sent _Ben _of all people to go back for the rest of them, but he recognizes that they didn't have much of a choice. Mark needed to get to the farm as quickly as humanly possible, and to Kenny that kid would probably just get in the way. His heart might be in the right place, he supposes, but when you get down to it, Ben's just that – a kid.

Clearly he hasn't had to kill off walkers or do any of the stuff that he probably should've learned by now.

Placing his hands on his hips, Kenny turns around and glances over at Lee who's taken a seat on the front steps, and Lilly who's leaned up against the railing; still recovering from what just happened.

"I've never heard anyone scream like that before," Lilly admits, shuddering as she tries to clear her head. "That… it wasn't normal."

"How would you feel if you were poked around inside and had stuff taken out while you were still awake for the whole thing?" Lee questions while rubbing his knee, trying his best to focus on the positive. Now that the drugs are kicking into his system, then hopefully Mark will be back on his feet in no time.

Kenny, having this question burning in his brain for a while now, decides to address the elephant in the room.

"Why the hell would he try that anyways?" he asks, not understanding why Mark would put himself in harm's way like that. "If Mark had just waited and left that guy alone, then he wouldn't have gotten shot and we wouldn't be in this position!"

"So you're _blaming _him?!" Lilly demands, giving Kenny the stink-eye as the man looks back with indignity.

"I never said that once!"

"Well that's what it fucking sounds like, Kenny! Mark's got the slimmest chance to live, and you're angry at him because you're getting upset about the whole thing!"

"Are you even fucking _listening _to me, Lilly?! You sure talk a lot of shit, don't ya?!"

"ENOUGH!" Lee bellows, silencing the both of them as he stands up. "Jesus, guys! You sound like a bunch of damn two year olds! Lilly, quit getting on his ass about this, alright? We're already stressed enough as it is – no need to escalate things."

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Lilly brushes past the men crossly as Kenny prepares to make another snide comment.

Fortunately, Lee stops this before it really heightens to another shouting match.

"And you," Lee remarks pointedly, "what the fuck is it with you and her?! This happens every damn time, Kenny! You and Lilly constantly bitch at each other over the tiniest things, and then I've gotta come in and play peacemaker! Enough is enough, man! This shit's gotta stop!"

"Picking sides again, are we?" Kenny snarls, getting real tired of Lee's failure to see things from his perspective. "Can't say I'm surprised, considering our track record!"

"Don't even start this shit, Kenny…"

"No – you know what? For once in your damn life, you're gonna listen to me!" Kenny snaps, glaring Lee into submission as he stands a few feet away from the man. "_Sigh… _Look, I don't mean to get all up in your grill, Lee. But you've gotta open your eyes, here! Lilly doesn't give a damn about you or me or any of us! All that she wants is to save her own skin – hers and Larry's. I've got my family to worry about, and what about you? What about Clem?"

Frowning deeply, Lee raises his finger to point something out, but Kenny's not about to lose this argument. The man's convinced that he's doing this for Lee's own good, and honestly, he just doesn't want to see the guy get hurt – him or Clem. He might be an _up in your face _kind of guy, but sometimes that's just what people need.

Sometimes, everyone needs a little wake-up call to set them back on the path.

"Whether you like it or not, that little girl is _your _responsibility, Lee. I know how daunting that might seem – believe me, when I saw Duck for the first time, I nearly shat myself!" Kenny admits, causing both of the men to chuckle a little bit. Lee can only imagine what that must've looked like. "But you know what I ended up realizing? I found out that no matter what, even if it absolutely kills you and crushes your soul, every little thing you do has to put that child first. It has to consume you; make every living breath be based around that kid. Lilly doesn't know what's best for Clem… and I'm starting to think you might not either."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lee interrupts accusingly, feeling threatened as Kenny rips him apart.

What the ex-history professor starts to realize though, as the both of them simmer down, is that Kenny's not trying to be a jackass. In fact, he's trying to do the opposite of that.

Lowering his gaze a little bit, Kenny rubs his eyes as he sits down beside his friend on the steps.

"I wasn't there for them a whole lot over the years…" he confesses, looking regretful as he speaks. "I wasn't at home too much – off on a boat somewhere or other. I didn't give enough time to them… to my family… All that I'm saying is… is that I don't want to have to wake up one morning and regret that I haven't done right by them. By Kat and Duck… Just don't do the same stupid mistakes that I did, Lee."

Cautiously reaching over, Lee pats Kenny on the shoulder in a friendly way and offers him a small smile.

"…thanks, Ken," he tells him honestly, "I appreciate that. You're… you're totally right. I don't know what I'm doing – I've never had a kid before. And I know I'm not her dad or anything, but… hell. Any suggestions?"

As Andy and Danny step outside and slide past the duo, looking pretty green themselves after the whole Mark thing, Kenny scratches his chin in thought.

"Ha, I'd give you a parenting book if I had one," Kenny jokes, lightly shaking his head. "Jesus, man… where to even begin? Hmm… well, lucky for you that you don't have to go through the whole _infancy _stage. But right now? Well… have you gotten to know her a little bit better? You said that you only met her the day before Hershel's place, right?"

Nodding solemnly, Lee drums his fingers absentmindedly upon his knee. Neither of them have really mentioned it since the drug store, but Shawn's death still weighs heavily on their minds – especially with Kenny. That really resonated with him, and it didn't help that Duck was asking him about it the other day.

Lee starts explaining the facts, like Clem's age, her parents and what they used to do, what a couple of her hobbies were, and the fact that she wears that hat all day every day.

"That's about it, really," Lee admits in slight embarrassment. You'd think after three months that he'd at least know a _little _bit more.

"Hmm… well, that's a start at least. Maybe try to get her a bit more involved in your life," he suggests, listing off some things on his fingers. "Teach her the basics, you know? Show her how to cook a meal, or maybe tell her about some of that history shit you keep spewing on about. Anything you're into, try and share it with Clementine. I can't even begin to tell ya how over the moon Duck was when I took him out on the ocean for the first time."

Lee listens intently to everything the fisherman says, even the stuff that he doesn't exactly agree with. Getting Clem involved is a good idea, but how much is _too much? _Lee's not related to the kid – hell, it was bad enough when Clem gave him a doubtful look when he lied about being her babysitter.

And then there's also the huge stack of information that he's been keeping hidden from her this entire time – what really happened to her parents.

Ed and… Diana, he thinks her name was? If that voice recording was any indication, then there's no way in hell that they survived. The father must've gotten bit from the sounds of things, and that last recording… Christ, Lee could barely keep it together.

_Clementine, baby… If you can hear this, call the police… That's 9…1…1… We love you… we love you… we love y-_

How the hell do you just tell an eight year old something like that?

"DAAAAAADDDDD!" Duck suddenly calls out, interrupting them as Kenny rushes over to the gate and embraces his wife and son. Lee slowly stands up and walks towards the rest of the group; hands in his pockets as he silently watches the exchange.

"Thank god you're alright," he breathes out in relief, hugging Kat tightly as he lifts Duck up into the air. "After all of that stuff that happened on the way over here, I didn't know what to think. You're not hurt, are ya?"

"We're fine, Kenny," Katjaa reassures, planting a kiss on his cheek as she brushes some dirt off his chin. Her face grows more concerned as she glances towards the house. "Where's Mark? Is he…?"

"They've got someone workin' on him now. Don't worry about it."

Biting her lip in slight doubt, Katjaa tells her husband that she's going in to help out anyways. Being that she's a veterinarian, it makes sense that she should also be inside to work alongside Brenda in case anything happens, so Kenny reluctantly lets her go as Duck excitedly tugs on his arm.

"This is a farm, right?! Where are all the animals?!" the boy questions as Lee shakes his head in amusement.

That kid can sure be a handful when he wants to be.

Brought out of his own thoughts, Lee's gaze turns towards the kid who's become his one ray of sunshine in this dark, dreary world. Clementine, after _finally _releasing Larry's hand, jogs up towards her guardian with a small smile.

For his own part, Lee can't help but feel guilt in the pit of his stomach every single time that he gazes on her bright, little face. Holding back information like this is practically the same as lying to the poor girl.

He's about to talk to her, when all of a sudden he's interrupted by Andy and Danny – both of which have called the group to attention.

"Alright, everyone – we've run into a bit of a snag," Andy starts, getting a few looks of concern. Clementine goes over to stand beside Carley and Ben, while Lee sighs and focuses his attention on the brothers. This isn't going as well as he'd hoped so far. "At Lee's request, we've put Mark on some heavy-duty medicine in order to make the procedure a bit easier on the fella. However… that was the last of our batch, and we're more than likely gonna need some more of the stuff in the future. Since y'all were the last to use it, then Dan and I were thinking that you could – "

"I'll get it."

"Lillian, absolutely not," Larry immediately disagrees, not wanting his daughter to leave so soon after he's arrived. "Let one of these other assholes get the stuff. Get Everett over there to go get the drugs, since – "

"It's fine," Lilly shakes her head, causing Lee to internally sigh in relief. Knowing the old blowhard, Larry would probably have no issue with spilling his secret and turning everyone around here against him. "We've used up their supply, so it's only right that somebody go and restock them. Besides, you need more heart medication, so that's all the more reason I should go."

When Larry reluctantly relents, knowing fully well that Lilly's set in her ways, she grabs a backpack off of Danny before getting ready to move on.

What surprises everyone, however, is when Carley of all people decides that she's gonna tag along.

"I work better _alone_," Lilly mentions, hoping that she'll take the hint and stay with the others. "It'll be quicker for everyone if I just – "

Shaking her head, Carley puts her pistol in her back pocket and wraps her arm tightly around Lilly's shoulder; annoying the piss out of the stoic woman. "We're gonna be best buds, I know it!" Carley chirps, getting a few dry laughs out of the group members. "It's dangerous out there, Lilly. You need someone watching your back."

Groaning in annoyance, Lilly rolls her eyes before conceding defeat. "Fine…" she gives in, looking over at Larry again as they prepare to leave. "I'll see you soon, Dad. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, pumpkin," he whispers; watching as she and Carley blaze the old dusty trail. Once they're both clear out of sight, and everyone else has dispersed, Larry walks over to a wooden gazebo-type thing and sits down on the bench nearby.

He's got no interest in talking to any of these bastards.

…

"Hey, uh… Ben, is it?" Danny calls, causing the teen to look up from where he's sitting over by Clem. "Mind if you come help me with something in the barn? There's some salt licks inside that need clearing."

Looking down apologetically at the eight year old, the teen from Stone Mountain High stands up and disappears into the barn; willing to do whatever it takes in order for them to get a meal.

Clementine watches him go with slight sadness, as she had wanted to explore the St. John's dairy with him so that they could have some fun for a change. Everyone's always so gloomy! Why is that? Is it maybe because the monsters are trying to eat people?

That's so… so… sad! The young girl just wants everything to be normal and happy again – is that really too much to ask? She wants to go back to her house in Atlanta and wait until her parents come home – maybe Lee can come meet them too!

_That's stupid_, Clementine thinks bitterly, kicking over a pebble as she leans her hand underneath her chin. It's obvious that whatever's going on around here, people are going completely bonkers… and it's likely that her parents are…

No! They… they can't be! All she has to do is believe that they're alright; that her mom and dad are perfectly fine, waiting in Savannah for her to come and find them!

That's what the nice man on the radio told her, so it must be true! She doesn't really understand why she couldn't talk to them herself, but maybe they're just… sleeping?

But he's gotta be telling her the truth about them… right? Like really, what kind of person would lie about that sort of thing?

"Hey, Clem?"

Instantly turning her head around, Clementine smiles shyly as Lee stands to the side of her; tilting his head to the side as he watches with curiosity.

"Everything alright?" he asks, bending down to her height to try and talk to her face-to-face. "You've been plucking at that walkie-talkie for a while now. Anything you want to talk about, kiddo?"

"…nuh-uh," she shakes her head, not wanting to bother the man with this right now. It's more than likely that Lee wouldn't understand what's going on anyways.

"Ok then," Lee nods, scratching the back of his head awkwardly as he looks over to the workbench on the other side of the gate. That conversation he just had with Kenny has really resonated with the man, and he doesn't want to screw up whatever brittle relationship that he and Clem might share right now.

Suddenly looking over at the broken swing set, Lee gets an idea.

"Wanna come help me build this thing? I could use a solid helper like you," Lee suggests as Clem's eager nod fills him with warmth.

This kid's happiness is infectious, and this is one infection that Lee doesn't want to get rid of.

Walking over and grabbing the saw in his hand, Lee and Clem get to work – not as a father and daughter, but as friends and partners.

And you know what? Lee's perfectly fine with that.


	4. Here, here

"So why are you _actually _here?"

Glancing over at the ever-cold Lilly, Carley tries to come up with a plausible answer that'll satisfy the woman. She's literally asked this question five times trying to get a different response, and the reporter has finally stopped trying to bluff. Clearly "wanting to be best buddies" wasn't good enough, as the ex-army secretary saw right through that phoney line.

Banking a left at the fork in the road towards Macon, the pair of women pick up the pace in order to get to the town faster. Stumbling around a drug store in the dark of night wouldn't be such a great idea.

"Despite what you might think," Carley remarks with a smirk, "not _everybody _hates you. Us girls have to stick together, you know?"

"Hmph. I find that hard to believe."

Chuckling heartily, Carley tries to imagine a world where Lilly actually _agrees _with other people. Sadly, that world literally doesn't exist, as far as she's concerned. "You really need to lighten up," she suggests, getting the middle finger in her face as she pushes Lilly's hand aside. "Seriously, Lilly, knock it off. Not everyone's out to get you. There _are _people here that care about you – me included. I know Lee and Clem do, too."

Choosing to keep to herself and not admit that for this time (and this time _only_)… Carley might actually be right.

Maybe there is somebody out there who gives a damn, but Lilly's still not convinced. People always let you down – she's seen it before.

Don't get her wrong – Lilly isn't playing the _woe is me _card like so many others have believed. It's just that she's been through so much bullshit in her life that almost everyone seems like an enemy now. Making friends has never been an easy thing for Lilly.

So you can imagine how off-putting it seems now that Carley is going all… _intimate_, with her.

"Shouldn't be much farther now," Lilly mentions, frowning as they stumble upon a walker making a meal out of a teenage boy. "Shit… We've got a dead one up here."

As Carley catches up to her companion and sees what the fuss is about, she sighs sadly as the zombified beast looks over and growls. Live food is much tastier than dead ones, apparently.

Sliding her rifle off of her back, Lilly bashes the walker's head in repeatedly until it falls to the ground; where she beats the thing down again. Carley's a little disturbed by how at ease Lilly appears while doing this, but she doesn't say anything until the thing's confirmed as dead.

Wiping the blood off on the grass, Lilly pointedly glances over at Carley; fully expecting her to say something about how crazy she is.

"Couldn't we have just shot the thing?" she suggests as Lilly shakes her head "_no"_.

"Never waste a bullet," she replies, patting the thing down to check for ammo and weapons. When all Lilly can uncover is an opened, sticky pack of gum and an antique smoking pipe, she rolls the body into a ditch and wipes her hands off.

Stepping up beside her, Carley looks at the small pile of dead bodies that have collected on the side of the road. "It doesn't get any easier, does it?"

"Hasn't yet for me," Lilly shakes her head, deciding that it'd be best to move on. "Come on, let's just get this done. Macon's just over this hill."

As Lilly moves on, Carley can't help but look over at the faces of what were once people. Each of them had lives before all of this – something to wake up every day for. Did they have families? Jobs? Significant others? How about a fucking dog?

What sort of world would allow this to happen; that all of these amazing things that people could've had before are just suddenly swept away in such a violent fashion?

"Carley!" Lilly calls out, sweeping the reporter out of her thoughts as she scurries on after her. The ghost town appears in her view as she reaches the top of the hill, and it looks really beautiful with all of the vibrant autumn colours surrounding it.

_Wish I had my camera_, Carley thinks to herself, although constantly remembering one disturbing thought:

There's likely next to nobody to report the news to anymore.

…

"Yuck…" Ben mutters to himself, looking at his grimy hands with disgust after having just spent twenty minutes or so carrying salt licks to the stables. But if there's one thing that Ben Paul learned from helping out at the goat farm back in the day, it's that farm work is hard work – you often get down and dirty in order to get the job done.

As a child, Ben used to love going up to his grandpa's farm – there were horses running rampant across acres of open land, big planks that you could jump off of and land in the hay piles, and a big tractor that could take them around the countryside. Hell, Ben even got to drive it himself when he was twelve… at least until he got it stuck in the mud, anyways.

Sure, the St. John's farm may look pretty and be a nice distraction from what's going on out there, but it doesn't really compare in Ben's mind. Oh, what he would give for just _one _more day with his family back at his grandpa's farm…

"Hey Dan, how's Maybelle holdin' up?" Andy hollers as the troubled teen walks out of one of the stables. His blue letterman jacket now smells like a heavy mix of salt and cow shit, but he's not quite as upset by that as he'd normally be.

It's not as if any of his high school friends are around to poke fun at him over it.

"Hmm… kinda hard to tell," Danny admits while looking the cow over; one hand down by his leg while the other casually strokes the animal's back. "I ain't seen her this sick in a mighty long time. Reckon that pregnancy 'll kick in any day now."

"Pregnant?" Ben repeats, finding the concept of an animal like that a little difficult to believe.

Smirking, Andy pats Ben on the shoulder as he nods. "Yep – old Maybelle here's gonna be the proud mama of a baby calf! You folks arrived just in time."

Remembering a conversation that he overheard on the way over here, Ben acknowledges that Katjaa was apparently a veterinarian before all of this went down, but it's not gonna be much use for right now.

She's kind of preoccupied with another patient of hers right now.

Stretching his back and stifling a yawn, Danny stands up before following his brother out of the barn. "Might as well put together some grub for these hungry souls – whatever we've got leftover from last time…" Danny mentions quietly, causing Ben's mouth to water a little bit. Food?! Real, actual sustenance?! Ben can hardly wait for dinner, as it's felt like forever since the guy's had a proper meal.

Wanting to poke around some more, Ben heads to the back of the barn to see if there's anything he could find. Hmm… more salt licks? No thanks, he's touched more than his fair share, although it was pretty hilarious when he caught Clementine licking one of them earlier. He could barely control himself when she immediately started spitting and sputtering; desperately trying to wipe the taste away from her mouth as she vowed never to go near one of those things again.

With nothing else really to look for, Ben sighs before starting to turn around…

…until his eyes glance over at the back door.

_Why would they lock this up, _Ben thinks to himself; yanking on the lock before realizing that there's no way he'd be able to get it open without some tools. Literally having nothing better to do, Ben tries to stealthily and casually walk on over to the tool box that he saw Lee using earlier to help finish the swing set.

Since it's only Danny out on the porch right now, and nobody else is really paying him any mind, Ben pokes around inside the box until he finds what he needs – a multi-tool. This thing has a thousand uses, but all he needs is for it to work once.

Closing the box back up again, Ben exhales deeply before re-entering the barn and heading back towards the lock.

You see, this is what happens when teenagers have too much time on their hands.

Getting to work on some of the screws that hold it in place, Ben whistles to himself absentmindedly as he twists the multi-tool in different directions.

"What are you doing?!"

Getting so startled that he bangs his head sorely off the door, Ben rubs his tender spot in pain as Duck looks over in curiosity.

"Jesus…" Ben whines, shaking it off as he picks up the tool and frowns. "Why are you in here? Shouldn't you… I don't know, be playing with Clementine or something?"

"Girls are _boooorrrrring!_" Duck complains in a joking manner, getting a little chuckle from Ben.

"Heh… give it a few years…" Ben mutters to himself. "Well… I wanted to see what's inside. They've got this locked up for some reason, but you can't tell anyone that I'm opening it, okay? It can be… umm, our secret, I guess."

"A mystery!" Duck exclaims, causing Ben to put a finger to his lips. When the boy simply kneels beside Ben to watch what he's doing, the teen sighs before continuing to unscrew the lock from its position.

Some muffled talking outside causes Ben to stop in his tracks in a bit of a panic, but Duck assures that it's nothing to worry about and volunteers to stand guard… as Robin.

…yeah.

Anyhow, Ben finally manages to remove the last of the screws from the padlock before sliding the whole thing off and placing it carefully on the ground. Suddenly feeling eager and excited for doing something that he's probably not supposed to, Ben grabs onto the door handles as Duck bounces back beside him.

With a creak of the wood, Ben pulls the doors open as he widens his eyes in shock, and Duck screams at the top of his lungs.

"Holy shit…" Ben mutters as he drops the multi-tool to the floor uselessly.

….

Breathing heavily, the duo of Carley and Lilly jog more slowly the further into town that they get. They've been passing rows upon rows of houses on their way into this place – each one just slightly different than the last. A different colour of brick, a smaller garage door, a smashed window here and there… but there's still one thing that Lilly can't figure out for the life of her.

"Who the fuck has been cutting the grass the whole time?!" she asks aloud, causing both of them to chuckle at how stupid this is. You'd think after three and a half months of no maintenance whatsoever, the grass would be a good two feet long or something. But no – despite numerous weeds creeping in, it's almost like these people's lawns have remained unchanged.

Shrugging her shoulders, Carley can't help but smirk as this same trend stretches on for a ways down. "Who knows?" she questions, shaking off the thought as she realizes that they aren't alone out here. Walkers, like the weeds, have sprouted up out in the street. "Should we take them out?"

Frowning in concentration, Lilly aims her gun to shoot, but groans before putting it back down and shaking her head. "There's too many of them – we can't risk the noise."

Nodding in agreement, Carley follows Lilly down the street as they try and avoid their pursuers. Thankfully they're still really slow, so the two of them don't need to kill themselves trying to run away, but they still try and hurry nonetheless.

Crossing the street past one of those tiny hardware stores, Lilly sighs in relief as they finally come across the pharmacy – free of walkers this time.

Except for one dorky man who's still laying on the ground, three months after his demise…

"Oh god…" Carley covers her mouth, trying to stifle back a sob as she sees him; torn to bloody bits and looking like a carved turkey on Thanksgiving. The worst part is that he's actually come back to life despite barely having anything left on him at all – he's quite literally a shell of his former self. His eyes have turned a dull shade of grey as he weakly turns his head towards the women and growls.

Doug is no longer the same geeky man who saved Carley's life.

Sighing sadly, Lilly cautiously steps up to Doug's undead form as his gaze hungrily turns to her. His arms no longer work because of how much these monsters feasted on him, and seeing him like this… it hurts. Despite not really giving him the time of day usually, Doug was still a part of their group, and probably would've been a good friend.

Carley's broken up over it more than any of them, but she knows deep down that Doug wouldn't have wanted to be like this.

Without another word, Carley yanks out her pistol, shuts her eyes and squeezes the trigger; finally putting the man to rest. Hopefully he'll be at peace.

"You did the right thing," Lilly comments, trying to sound less like her usual self and more like… well, more like Carley in this instance.

Staying still for a moment, the reporter wipes her eyes as she shakes her head tearfully. "Did I?" she questions, trying her best not to sound bitter over the whole thing. "Sometimes I wish… I just wish that… maybe Lee should've saved him instead…"

Lilly's about to retort that, to say that she's blowing this all out of proportion and that there was nothing she could've done for Doug, but her ears perk up the sound of… heavy winds. It's like something out of a dream, really – Lilly hasn't heard that noise since…

"Is that…" she remarks, turning around to look at the sky, "…a helicopter?"

…

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" Kenny demands, having heard his boy's shouting from outside the barn. Upon seeing Ben, he glares as Duck rushes towards his leg and holds him tightly. "Ben… what the hell did you do?!"

But Ben doesn't answer him – instead just continuing to stare straight ahead into the back room as Kenny looks behind him with confusion. Lee and Clem rush inside after them, also wondering what all the noise is for, but again Ben stays silent.

Wordlessly pointing into the room, Kenny and Lee brush past him as they too widen their eyes in disturbance. Sprawled out on a work table, all bloody and carved up, is a… a…

…deer.

"Oh…god…" Lee holds a hand over his face, making sure that Clementine doesn't have to see anything in here. There's a tub on the left with a bunch of tools surrounding it (including a pitchfork and some kind of animal taser), a big, circular saw thing that's all covered in wood chips, as well as various other devices scattered about. There are a whole bunch of jars on the top shelf containing organs of all kinds, and Lee thinks he's gonna be sick.

This could be considered animal cruelty at its worst.

"Y'all ain't supposed to be back here…"

All at once, everybody immediately turns around to find Danny St. John glowering at them; catching them red-handed as Kenny stomps on over to the man.

"Mind telling me what the fuck this shit is?!" he spits, pointing back to the gruesome scene. There's blood from the deer staining the table that it's placed on as flies circle around the body. "Now I know why this place was locked up! You people are sick, twisted hicks who – "

"It's dinner, actually," Danny cuts in, feeling rather annoyed with all of the accusations thrown his way. "Look, our dairy ain't what it used to be, and with only the one cow we had to resort to other means of getting food. Andy and I got out huntin' for critters like that one, bring it back to the farm, skin it and dress it back there. The leftovers are kept in that there meat locker."

"Yeah? Well what about the jars?" Lee questions, shuddering as he gazes upon them. When Clementine accidentally sneaks underneath his legs and sees what's inside, she gasps; flabbergasted and shocked at what she's witnessed.

Sighing heavily, Danny beckons for everyone to join him in the back, now that the big secret is out of the bag.

"Them jars are the organs that we take out – liver, heart, intestines… whatever's left over after we scrape off the meat," he explains, looking rather saddened by the whole thing. "…it ain't a pretty setup we've got here, but it's gotta get done. Every week or so, either Andy or I take one of them jars and empty the stuff out in the forest a few miles away."

"But why?" Lee asks, not seeing the point of doing something like that. "I mean, won't that just attract walkers?"

"That's _exactly _what it'll do," Danny nods as the rest of them look on in confusion. "If we lure a trail of organs out in the woods somewhere, them dead ones will come looking for 'em and keep away from the farm. It's messy as hell, but it works."

Further explaining how the saw is used to cut wood down for the fence, the house and boarding up windows, Danny seemingly calms the frightened survivors down a notch or two. With the exception of Kenny perhaps, their suspicions of the St. John's have been largely suppressed. This family has taken them into their home, helped keep Mark safe, put a temporary roof over their heads, and has been straight up with them ever since they arrived.

And yet none of them feel safe – how could _anyone _feel secure out in these conditions? Every little thing causes them to jump in surprise; every single stranger they come into contact with is considered a potential threat.

But maybe, just maybe, these people aren't as bad as they thought.

….

"Umm… Larry?"

Turning his head, the grump looks upon Clementine for a second before grunting and turning back to face the road. The sun's going down, and Lilly's still not back yet – he won't rest until she's safely returned.

"You should come eat something," Clem suggests, turning her head back to Lee as he smiles encouragingly. This little girl seems to be the only one around right now that can get through to him. "Brenda says that dinner's ready, and Mark's gonna wake up soon! Don't you wanna come inside with us?"

"Not hungry."

Frowning impatiently, Clementine stands beside the big lug as he leans over the picket fence. The swift rustling of branches in the wind and the dark clouds looming overhead suggest that there's a storm coming pretty soon, but Larry's willing to wait through it all until Lilly returns. She's the only thing he's got left, and that goes both ways.

"Lilly's strong and smart – I think she'll be okay," Clem mentions, getting yet another heavy sigh from the man. This kid just doesn't quit, does she? "Plus, Carley's with her! They can take out the bad guys no problem!"

When Larry says nothing but sadly keeps on staring out into the distance, Clementine grows more concerned. She's never seen him this… _worried_ before, and it's kind of startling with how normally angry and determined he usually is.

"You really miss her, huh?"

Nodding solemnly, Larry closes his eyes for a moment as he feels Clem's small hand grasp onto his much larger one. "God damn it…" Larry whispers, never feeling so vulnerable before. And that's not even the worst part – the bad news is that he doesn't even _care _about showing how distressed he's become. Lilly's his entire life, and with all the reckless abandon that she's been showing lately… it's scaring the living shit out of him that one day he's not going to be able to see his baby girl anymore.

He promised his wife on her dying breaths that he'd watch over her like a hawk, but now all of that's getting threatened. How was he supposed to fulfill that promise when she was always throwing herself into dangerous positions like this?

"Do you wanna come sit with me?" Clementine asks hopefully, wanting him to hurry it up a little bit. "Our supper's gonna get cold, and I saved you a seat…"

"You know what?" Larry suddenly asks, in probably the calmest tone that Clementine's ever heard from the man. "Out of all of these dumbasses around here… you're probably the only one who's won me over."

"Does that mean you'll come?"

Nodding with the tiniest smirk of all time, Larry steps off the fence and walks back towards the house; trailing behind a sprinting Clementine who's happy that she managed to convince him.

Lee, having witnessed the whole thing, shakes his head in disbelief as Larry walks up the front steps.

"I'm still in your bad books though, I take it?"

"You bet your ass, you are."

Chuckling and rolling his eyes, Lee steps to the side before closing the door behind him.

"Thought so," he says to himself, heading into the dining room and sitting himself next to Andy.

…..

_Ding ding ding!_

"I'd like to propose a toast!" Lee announces, setting his fork to the side as he raises his glass in the air. "Andy, Danny and Brenda – you didn't have to take us in, but you did. You didn't have to feed us like this, or tend to Mark like you did, but you found it within yourself to do it anyways. Without you, we'd probably be freezing our butts off at the motor-inn again; swapping ghost stories around the RV."

"Heh, more likely _I'd _be telling stories – you usually start snoring halfway through!" Kenny jokes, causing the kids to giggle as he pretends to be snoozing in his seat.

Shaking his head lightheartedly, Lee continues with no more interruptions. "Anyways, we all really appreciate what you've done for us, so here it goes. To the St. John's!"

"_To the St. John's!"_

"Here, here," Katjaa smiles as the family of three smile humbly.

"That was awful nice of ya, sweetheart," Brenda says to him, watching as Andy pats him on the back. "It's always a nice change of pace to have some _good _company around for a change."

Puzzled, the motor-inn group listen intently between mouthfuls of venison, which (despite what they saw earlier) isn't actually that bad. They wouldn't be picky when it comes to food at this point, of course, but it's a nice change of pace from worrying about when their next meal was gonna be.

"We've had a few deadbeats drop by over the past few months," Brenda explains. "Mostly they turned out to be folks looking for an easy ticket, you know? Bandits and ruffians who wanted a go at our farm."

"You've got a bandit problem?" Kenny asks, remembering just who those people in the woods were that shot Mark beforehand.

Nodding in confirmation, Andy twirls the meat on his plate around as he continues the story. "There's a big group of 'em that've camped down by the Save-Lots nearby," he says, trying to calm the table down before they get into an uproar. "They haven't been a problem for us in a while – we gave 'em a whole whack of supplies so that they'd leave us alone. They don't go anywhere near them fences, and typically they take care of any critters that come our way."

"If they ever _did _become a _real_ problem," Danny adds, waving a finger in doubt, "then we can handle it. This place is built up on a couple acres of space, and the property's protected by the fence on almost all sides. There ain't no way them bastards would be gettin' through."

This puts the survivors on a little bit of unease. Bandits? As in more of those assholes that were out and about? That unsettles Lee quite a bit, but Kenny seems more on edge about this than most. If they're as dangerous as those two were, and there's a _whole entire group _of them, then maybe this place isn't quite as safe as they had thought.

Still, at least in Kenny's mind, anything's better than staying at the motor-inn.

"…_ugh… guys?" _

Clementine's eyes light up as she excitedly dashes away from the table and heads upstairs to where Kat and Brenda had put Mark. The adults chuckle as she bounds up the stairs two at a time; desperately wanting to see her friend again.

"_HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE!" _Clem calls down as the rest of the group push out their chairs.

"Sounds like he'll be as fit as a fiddle in no time," Andy comments as everyone slowly heads up the stairs.

Little do they know that outside, the generator has thrown yet another belt as the fence turns off, and in the dark are some undead visitors slowly creeping towards the house; unannounced as they smell the scent of people.

The clock is ticking as the first one stumbles over the fence.

…

That noise Lilly had heard indeed was a helicopter… but something feels wrong as it starts to approach them overhead. Carley's waving her arms around like a maniac trying to get the pilot's attention, but Lilly eyes it wearily.

That aircraft is from the Warner Robbins air force base – she could figure that much out even if the chopper was a mile away.

But everyone that worked there _knew _that there was no point in circling around Macon – the town was a dead zone, with practically nothing alive there anymore except for random scavengers and forest animals. The place was evacuated within the first few days, and as far as they were aware, nobody else was living in the houses or buildings.

So knowing that, who would be flying over in this ghost town? The only possible explanation could be…

"That's not one of ours…" she whispers, shaking her head as she widens her eyes in panic. "Carley, we need to move – right now!"

"Huh?" she questions, not understanding why she's saying this. "Lilly, that's the military, isn't it? We should ask for their help! Supplies, medicine, that kind of thing."

As the giant mechanical bird hovers a little ways away from them, Lilly's heart races faster as she sees the turrets start to spin on the side of the machine.

"FUCK! CARLEY, RUN! NOW!"

Yanking her arm tightly, Lilly practically drags Carley inside Everett's Pharmacy (to which the name sounds vaguely familiar to her), as they try to avoid the barrage of gunfire headed their way. Bullets roar and crack through the sky as they dive in through one of the shattered windows; scraping their arms as they just barely avoid contact.

Realizing that if they stand right now then they'll both get torn to bits, Lilly crawls on her hands and knees over to a window on the opposite end of the pharmacy. Carley holds her position behind one of the counters and tries to cover her head as much as she can.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS?!" Carley bellows over the gunfire, although Lilly can barely hear her voice.

"JUST STAY DOWN! WE'LL WAIT THEM OUT!" Lilly practically screams, holding her rifle as she gets set up in the corner. The bullets are getting fired in the completely wrong area now, so the two women sit there until the psychopaths in the helicopter finally stop the shooting.

The pharmacy is now decorated with bullet holes, flying dust and layers of wooden splinters, making the room look like it just went through a war zone scenario. How the two of them actually came out alive is beyond them, but Lilly's not willing to take another chance.

They got lucky this time – real lucky.

Still breathing heavily, Lilly tries to cock the rifle back as quietly as she can. The helicopter blades are still whipping outside, so she knows they haven't left yet, and so she gets an idea.

"See that brick over there? By your foot?" she whispers, nodding as Carley picks the thing up. "Chuck it at the window!"

"_What?! _Are you fucking crazy?!"

"Just do it!"

"Ugh…" Carley caves, realizing that she's not gonna have much of a choice. "Whatever you're planning had better work!"

Pulling her arm back, Carley tosses the brick over her shoulder and ducks her head back down as the thing crashes through the window; causing yet another array of gunfire to come streamlining their way.

"FUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!" Carley yells, having never been so afraid for her life. As she desperately tries not to get shot from her position behind the _not-so-durable _counter, Lilly takes her rifle, aims it and fires two bullets – two because the first one wasn't a direct hit.

The second one got the guy right in the neck, however, as he quickly loses control of the aircraft. Down and down it tumbles, spinning out of control as the guy manning the gun tries to jump for safety. Unfortunately for him, the guy didn't time it properly at all, and the helicopter blades slice him clean in half as his legs slam against the door.

"GET DOWN!" Lilly yells out, desperately diving for cover as the helicopter slams into the roof of the pharmacy; caving in one of the sections as layers of metal and concrete come crashing down from the wreck. The vehicle almost immediately ignites as the fire from its engine latches onto the card stand – no more _happy birthdays _for this place.

Lilly, having just roughly smacked her head off the window ledge, groggily opens her eyes as she tries to scan the room. The hard-nosed woman is blinded and strangled by the smoke that's now wafting in through the massive hole in the pharmacy, so she desperately tries to crawl into the back room that they had unlocked the first time they came here.

"Ugh… C-Carley?!" she chokes out, the smoke and massive amounts of heat making her feel lightheaded. Where the hell is she?! Did she somehow manage to get out to safety?! "_Cough-cough… _CARLEY?!"

Grabbing a handful of pills, medicine and anything else within her reach, she quickly stuffs them into her pockets so that hopefully she won't need to go back into this place to grab what they originally came here for. Violently coughing, Lilly drags herself to the next aisle before leaning up against a cupboard; completely drained of energy.

"Fucking…" she doesn't even finish, feeling like a melting pile of shit as her head lazily rolls to the side. If this is how she's gonna go out, then at least she made an effort to help the people she cared about.

But if she ever does manage to get out of this hopeless situation, Lilly swears that she'll try harder with them – she'll tell Larry how much she cares about him and is thankful for everything he's done for her over the years, she'll go up to Clementine and tell her what a wonderful kid she is and how proud she's become of her – hell, she'll give Kenny _a fucking hug _for all she cares.

And Lee… she'll tell him that…

"_Omid, this is so fucking stupid!" _someone shouts over the roar of a burning building. Her vision's hazy, but she can manage to see two silhouettes of people rushing into the pharmacy, most likely trying to help. _"You're gonna risk your life for some stranger?!"_

"…_two strangers, apparently."_

Lilly's vision darkens, and she hits the floor from exhaustion.


	5. Savages

He hears them piling up the stairs like a herd of elephants; still smirking as Clementine excitedly stays near his side. The kid was practically bouncing off the walls when he had awoken about a minute ago, and a part of him feels glad to see the relieved faces of people crowding in to see their patient restored.

But something feels… wrong, for Mark. It's not the fact that he can barely remember anything past getting shot out in the forest, and it's not that he feels that same excruciating pain (although he's definitely felt better before all of this).

No, it's something else entirely. Something deep within him; something that's making his very bones _quake _with need and want. There's a burning desire somewhere within that now-retired air force pilot, but he can't figure out what it is.

It's almost like a… a _hunger_ or _thirst_. But for what, exactly?

Mark's got no clue – the only thing he can really see are people and some kind of tube attached to his arm; clearly empty of whatever liquid was put inside of it.

Meh, it was probably just some kind of drug. Mark's sure that there's nothing to worry about there.

Right?

"How're you doing, man?" Lee asks first, looking relieved that his friend has woken up. "You gave us quite the scare, you know that?"

Chuckling quietly, Mark reaches for his glasses on the side table so that everyone's not so blurry to him. "Heh… I'd say that I'm sorry but… you know," he chuckles quietly, looking down at his wounds with scorn. "Have… have I missed anything?"

Hesitating for a moment, Lee glances over at Kenny before shaking his head. Nope, nothing life-changing for anyone just yet, although Lee does have to admit that Lilly and Carley have been gone for quite some time now. If only cell phones could still work out here…

"The St. John's saved your life," Katjaa points out, earning some small smiles from the trio of farm labourers. "They helped patch you up after you got knocked out. You might feel a little woozy for a while, but that should only be temporary."

"Good to hear," Mark nods appreciatively, "and thank you. Sorry if I caused you any trouble there."

Putting a reassuring hand on Mark's shoulder, Brenda smiles sweetly before shaking her head. "Nonsense," she tells him, not wanting the man to worry about it. "Take all the rest you need, darlin'. It ain't no trouble at all, ya hear?"

Nodding tiredly, Mark struggles to keep his eyes open as the group, seeing that he's going to need the rest, start to exit the room one at a time. Brenda mentions for Mark just to holler if there's anything he needs, but the man insists that that won't be a problem. He's a pretty self-reliant guy, even with how incapacitated he is right now.

As Danny shuts the door closed behind him, Mark leans his head back on the pillow in comfort. As much as he _loathes _not being able to move around and do anything to show his appreciation, he can't say that he doesn't completely hate being able to relax for a little while. Ever since they found him at Warner Robbins, times have been pretty tough for the group. Walkers usually, but when that guy got caught in the bear trap, Mark really didn't think that Lee would have the stomach to cut that teacher out of it. He certainly wouldn't have been able to.

Deciding not to dwell on the past, Mark turns his head towards the window as he peers outside.

_Looks like a storm's coming_, he thinks to himself before blowing out the candle beside his bed.

…..

"You look like you could use some help," Lee comments, heading back over to the dinner table and picking up some of the dishes as Andy nods his head. Two pairs of hands are better than one, as they say.

Setting the plates into a pile, Lee watches as Andy collects the utensils and places them all into a cup before heading into the kitchen. Following behind, Lee cringes as he looks at the wooden table; several blood stains remaining on its surface.

"Jesus…" he croaks out, shuddering as he heads over to the sink. How they still have running water is completely beyond him. "Still can't imagine something like that happening to the guy, you know? Getting a shotgun blast to the chest… It's hard to believe that he's still even _alive _after that."

"Lee… I need to ask you somethin', man."

Glancing over as Andy wipes the plates with a towel, Lee nods as a means for him to go ahead. Sighing, the St. John boy opens one of the cupboards as he places some of the dishes back where he got them from.

"I didn't wanna be rude or nothin' and ask this when we was all eatin' dinner," he starts with a shrug, "but… how long were y'all planning on stickin' around for? Don't get me wrong, Lee – Mama, Danny and I have loved having you folks around… but there's only so much resources that we'd be willing to give away. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, ya know? And we've gotta look out for ourselves first."

"I understand," Lee confirms, seeing exactly where he'd be coming from. As nice as this place actually is… it can't be for the long haul. "That wouldn't be fair to you guys, after everything you've done for us. But… I'll have to talk about it with the rest of them, you know? We need to come up with a plan for what we're gonna do before we draw any real conclusions."

"Absolutely – do what you've gotta do. I don't mean to push you away or nothin', Lee…"

Chuckling, Lee shakes his head as he grabs another dish and rinses it off. There's really nothing for Andy to apologize for – it's their house, so they should be able to make the decisions.

_I just hope Lilly, Kenny and Larry don't blow a gasket when they hear the news, _Lee mentally sighs, knowing that the three of them will probably take this like re-opening an old wound – scathing and painful. Once you've had a taste of the good life, everything else seems crappy by comparison.

Suddenly, a shrill scream causes Lee to instantly widen his eyes and turn his head; dropping the plate carelessly as it shatters upon the floor.

"CLEMENTINE?!" Lee bellows, instantly rushing to the front of the house as Andy comes charging close behind. Panic courses through his veins as he sees what's going on – a walker busted its arm through one of the windows near the door and has Clementine by the wrist.

"Shit!" Lee swears as Clem tries her best to break away, not getting anywhere as the flesh eater brings her within striking distance. Lee grabs onto the wrist of the walker tightly and knocks the girl off of the being; twisting the dead man's arm until it snaps off completely and lands on the floor in a sickening fashion.

Stopping to catch their breath, Lee goes over to comfort the young girl in any way that he can, but she just hugs her knees to her chest and stares at the floor in a trance. Lee is reminded of when that happened at the pharmacy a while back, and how terrified Clem was of getting bitten and becoming one of those things. That must've been one scary situation for the child, but unfortunately that walker doesn't seem to be the last of them.

"Jesus, are y'all alright?!" Kenny hollers, coming down the stairs as Kat, Duck, Larry and the remaining St. Johns follow suit. "There's a couple dozen of those things outside! How the hell did they get through?!"

Glowering at his brother in a knowing fashion, Andy audibly groans in frustration as Danny looks to the floor uncomfortably. "Damn it all, Dan! I told you to replace the fuckin' belt in the generator! Now look at what you've done!"

"Hey, don't go blamin' all of this shit on me! There's no guarantee that those sons of bitches wouldn't have gotten here anyway!" Danny points out, revealing to the group that the fences might not exactly be foolproof as they once believed.

The fact that the _safest _place they'd found so far actually isn't as safe as they thought… well, that sure as hell unnerves the survivors to no end. If they can't find a safe haven here, then where can they?

With a bunch of the walkers banging on the door, mindlessly trying to break inside, Lee lifts Clementine up under her arms despite her trying to resist. Wanting to keep her safe, he ushers her to head up the stairs and wait in one of the bedrooms.

"I need you to keep Mark safe, alright?" he asks, opening the door as Mark's head bolts upwards. "Can you do that for me, sweet pea? We've all gotta pitch in now – that means you need to make sure he doesn't get into trouble."

Even though Lee can tell that she knows he's just making that story up, he smirks in relief as she nods her head. The last thing he needs is to have to worry about whether Clementine is gonna come out of this alive or not.

"_FUCK! EVERYONE MOVE!" _he hears Kenny yell downstairs, causing Lee to turn around and pull out his gun. The walker groans and noises have gotten a little bit louder, and the only thing separating the three of them from the dead ones is a closed door.

"Everyone keep quiet…" Lee whispers to Mark and Clem, with the former finally realizing what must be going on downstairs. Having his pistol out in front of him, Lee tiptoes towards the door and crouches down near the side of it; putting his ear to the wall.

_Thump…thump…thump…_

The fact that he doesn't hear any of his friends downstairs has got Lee nervous enough as it is, but hearing some of the walkers wandering around out in the hallway is just as frightening. He can literally hear his own heart since its pounding against his chest like a drum, and he releases a shaky breath as he continues to sit there.

The silence that follows afterwards causes him to halt his breathing entirely.

"…are they gone?" Clem asks nervously, to which Lee shrugs his shoulders. He's got no idea what's going on out there, but he's determined to find out for himself.

Quietly walking back over to Clementine, he puts a hand on his shoulder as he relays what his plan's gonna be.

"I need to go look and make sure it's safe out there," he explains, patting her lightly. "You need to stay here, alright? Block the door with some chairs, and don't let anything inside until you hear my voice, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Please be lucky…" she tells him as he heads to the front door; watching as he quietly grips the door handle.

Something tells the eight year old that things are about to go horribly wrong.

….

Slipping his head out through the doorway, Lee steps out into the hall before closing the door behind him; slightly grinning to himself when he hears the scraping of chairs on the other side. Clem knows what she's doing – there's no problem on that front.

But as he stealthily makes his way forwards, Lee gets the eerie feeling that he isn't alone in the house. He creeps towards the staircase and curses under his breath with how squeaky some of the stairs are, but thankfully no walkers have come charging after him… yet. Lee's still got his pistol handy if things get really messy.

He hates the fact that Mark and Clem are basically unprotected if something manages to break down their barrier, but what choice does he have? It's not as if he'd be willing to give an eight year old a _gun_ for Christ's sake, and Mark's in no shape to protect the both of them. Besides, the people that he's actually grown kind of fond of over the past little while (most of them, anyways) could be in trouble out there. They could be fighting overwhelming odds, desperately trying to kill off the walkers that Kenny had seen earlier.

The blood stains dragging across the wooden floor don't give him much hope.

"_Gragggghh…" _a walker moans incoherently; just standing there in the kitchen and looking at nothing in particular. He's the culprit for the bloody trail leading from the front hallway, it seems, so Lee quickly but quietly grabs a kitchen knife from the counter and sneaks up behind the creature.

Slamming the walker into the counter roughly, Lee jams the blade into the back of its head; causing black ooze that used to be blood to squirt onto his hand.

"Ugh…" Lee grimaces, yanking the knife out as the he lets the walker drop dead to the floor. Disgusting… those things could terrify even the hardiest of wills, and Lee personally can't wait for the day that they're all finally eradicated and they can go back to their normal lives.

Well, as normal as Lee's could be now – he's pretty much lost everything from his old life.

Deciding to keep the knife just in case, he wipes the gunk off on the walker's jeans (yeah, go figure) before heading out through the back door. Their property indeed stretches on acres of land, and as he steps out into the night air…

"Oh my god…" he breathes out, seeing all of those walkers that Kenny must've been talking about earlier. It's like a fucking army of the dead coming to meet him on the battlefield, and Lee can't say that he's seen anything like it before.

Seeing no other options right now, he puts his knife carefully in his pocket before holding his pistol with two hands. Hopefully his target practice from earlier hasn't gone to waste.

It's kind of hard to see out here, so Lee typically uses two bullets to take out the walkers instead of one. He manages to kill at least four before having to reload, and the man starts to panic as they inch closer towards him. If he keeps this up, then not only will he be completely surrounded by a flood of walkers, but that'll put Clementine in danger.

No way in hell is he gonna let that happen.

"_LEE! GET OVER HERE, DAMN IT!" _

"Kenny?!" Lee yells out, wondering why he's out here shooting the walkers off like he was just doing. Rushing over towards the fisherman, Lee shoots another of those fuckers down before high-tailing it back. "What are you doing out here?!"

"I should be asking you the same thing!" he retorts, growling as the walkers get closer to them. "Shit! We need to get to the barn – everyone else is back in there. Wait a minute, where's – "

"Locked in a room in the house," Lee interrupts, knowing that Kenny wouldn't like that. "Don't start, man. I wasn't bringing Clem out in all of this, and Mark isn't fit to move."

"…Jesus, Lee…"

Managing to get to the barn, Lee hurriedly starts sliding the door open as he and Kenny widen their eyes at the approaching dead mob coming towards them.

"FUCK! INSIDE, NOW!" Kenny shouts, practically shoving Lee into the room as he slams the door shut behind him. Just in time, too, as literally one second later the walkers start clawing at the door. Kenny's holding it shut with everything he's got, but even he isn't strong enough to fend off an entire horde of dead people. "God… damn it…"

"Kenny, you've gotta let it go!" Lee tells him, instantly getting an angry look. "They won't stop, you know that! We've got our guns – let's just take 'em from here!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE A LITTLE BOY IN HERE, ASSHOLE!" Kenny snaps, pissed that he'd even suggest such a stupid idea.

Lee, having more than enough, puts a hand on Kenny's arm that's immediately swatted away. "YOU'RE FUCKING CRAZY, KENNY! YOUR STUBBORNNESS IS GONNA GET YOU KILLED!"

"IT'S WHAT'S KEEPING ME _ALIVE!_" he angrily spits, cursing Lee's name as he's finally pulled off the door. "Urghh… You fucking idiot! Now look what you've done!"

Crawling backwards, Kenny reaches for his pistol that's on the floor; ducking just in time as Lee shoots two of the walkers that were clambering inside. A couple other gunshots swish by from Andy and Danny, bringing their defense up to four people at least. Picking Kenny up, Lee rushes him back deeper into the stables… completely forgetting that Maybelle is still sitting in the corner.

"Oh fuck…" Lee cringes, listening as the frightened shrieks of the cow grow more intense as the walkers attack it relentlessly. The bovine puts up a good fight for a little while; actually managing to kick a few of the flesh-eating monsters onto their asses. But unfortunately, Maybelle is no match for the sheer numbers they have as her throat is slowly ripped out. There's a whole lot of meat on a cow, so they'll be going to town for a while, but obviously they're still dangerous.

As the walkers pull out the cow's intestines, Andy and Danny angrily fir off more rounds at their pursuers. The worst part of this is that Maybelle was actually pregnant at this time, too… but Lee doesn't want to think about that.

"Kenny, what's happening?!" Katjaa shouts from the meat locker; trying to keep her son safe as Ben and Brenda look onwards.

"Just… keep Duck safe, Kat! We're gonna be fine!" Kenny replies, unfortunately realizing that he's not gonna have enough ammunition for all of them. "Damn it… how many rounds have you got?!"

"Four," Lee replies solemnly.

"Three," Danny chimes in.

"Four," Andy finishes, shooting another walker in the face. "Make that three."

Grunting, Kenny tries to think of some possible way that they can drive these assholes away from this place. If it hadn't been for Lee, then they wouldn't have been in this fucking mess! Why can't he just use his head, seriously?! Now they're all trapped in here, with no hope of escaping and –

"Move it, assholes!' Larry yells, shoving Kenny and Lee out of the way as he comes out with… a wheelbarrow.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Kenny snaps, not in the mood for whatever stupid plan he's gonna come up with.

Glaring angrily at him, Larry simply grabs a bunch of salt licks and places them all inside the wheelbarrow. "We'll make a battering ram!" he explains, getting ready to charge as the rest of them widen their eyes. "You dumbasses need to keep these fuckers off of me, understand?! I know your skulls might be too thick to grasp that, but – "

"Just go, old man!" Kenny berates, getting ready to charge forward behind the crazy old fuck.

On the count of three, Larry (seeing that nobody here's gonna be capable of getting rid of these walkers) rushes forward and knocks a whole bunch of the dead ones over like bowling pins; scrunching them underneath the wheels with the combined weight of the salt licks. Lee kills one that gets a little too close for comfort while the brothers take out the ones feasting on their cow.

Seeing that one has gotten caught underneath his _battering ram_, Larry angrily picks up a salt lick, raises it high above his head and slams it down right on the walker's face; completely crushing the thing underneath the solid block.

Jesus… can you even imagine if that was a _real person?! _Yikes…

"Fucking… shitballs…" Larry heaves out, clearly not used to sprinting as he places his hands tiredly over his knees. He may have a lot of strength within him, but Larry Caul was definitely not built for running.

The guy's so preoccupied, unfortunately, that he doesn't notice a crawling walker moving over to grasp on his leg – by then it is far too late.

Taking a big bite, the walker rips a bunch of skin and flesh away from Larry's leg as he groans in pain; looking frightened as Lee rushes over to shoot the thing.

"Oh my god…" Lee breathes out, bending down to examine the damage. Everyone knows what this means – a bite wound is practically a death sentence, and underneath that glare Larry knows it as well. "Larry, I…"

"TO HELL WITH WHAT YOU THINK, EVERETT! I'M FUCKED! I'M FUCKING FUCKED!" he roars, startling the professor as he shakes his head in disbelief. As much as he hated the man, Lee didn't want _this _to happen to him…

Which is about the same time that he gets a very dangerous, very painful and very risky idea.

"We need to get him back to the house, now!" Lee shouts as the rest of the gang wanders back out of the barn. "Andy, grab a hatchet or something! Hurry!"

As Andy does what he's told, Lee lifts the big guy onto his shoulder as he starts to carry him back to the front door. Larry instantly goes to protest, but Lee tunes the man out. There's no other way that he can think of – maybe this way he'll be able to survive the infection.

They've never actually had a bite victim in the group before… but a person can live without a leg. Amputees do it all the time!

"Lee, you can't be serious…" Kenny argues, catching up to them as he forces Larry to wrap his other arm around his shoulders. "This… you know it's just gonna – "

"Save his life."

"You don't know that!"

"Well what other choice do we have, Kenny?! Tell me, because I'd really love to hear it!" Lee yells, kicking the front door open as they move the fridge onto the kitchen table. Andy, along with everyone else, come trailing in behind them. "Brenda, please tell me you've got some leftover morphine laying around somewhere…"

"We used the last of it on Mark," Brenda shakes her head sadly; grabbing a towel and beginning to wrap it tightly around Larry's leg. Katjaa hurriedly takes her son up the stairs to stay with Clem and Mark so that Duck doesn't have to witness this.

It's about to get bloody.

Grabbing the hatchet from Andy, Lee curse under his breath at the news. Of course there's no morphine – maybe it wouldn't have kicked in as quickly as they'd like, but it would make this a hell of a lot less painful than it's going to be. Of all the days that Carley and Lilly had to go to his parent's pharmacy…

Brushing those thoughts aside, Lee whispers a short apology to Larry as he gets set to cut _yet another _person's leg off.

"Quit being soft! Just fucking do it!" Larry snaps, even though on the inside he's extremely nervous. Who wouldn't be in this kind of situation? Getting your leg taken off isn't your average, everyday experience! "And… where's that little pipsqueak you've got with you?"

"She's upstairs, Larry," Lee explains, noticing how much calmer he's been over the last day or so. It probably has everything to do with that little girl – she's got some sort of mystical power to make everything seem better than it actually is. "Clementine's safe…"

"…you need to take better care of her," he finishes, not saying anything else on the matter as he gets prepared for the worst. "Now come on! What are you waiting for, Everett?! DO IT! FUCKING DO IT!"

Cringing, Lee raises the hatchet into the air and pulls it downwards straight onto Larry's leg; resulting in a sickening crack that causes the old man to jolt upwards. He's screaming, as he ought to be, but something about his face looks wrong. As Lee brings it down on top of his partly-severed leg once again, he manages to fully cut through as the hatchet gets stuck in the wooden table underneath; the leg falling to the floor with a disgusting splatter.

This house is completely trashed and gruesome-looking. There's blood from the walkers, blood from Larry and Mark, dead bodies littering the floor, and everyone's up in arms over how fucked up everything seems to be. The rancid smell of death litters the air, and it takes everything he's got for Lee not to pass out as he sees Larry sitting there; with a bloody, mangled stump where his leg used to be.

But the most disconcerting thing about this? Larry's not breathing.

"Oh shit," Lee mutters, lifting the guy's head up as he tries to resuscitate him. "Fuck… fuck, man, he's not breathing! We've gotta get him up!"

"Lee…" Kenny reprimands, but his voice goes unheard as Lee tries to push down on his chest.

It doesn't help that Lilly also wasn't here to give her father his heart medication today.

"Come on, man… Come on, man…" Lee repeats over and over, pressing down on his chest in order to somehow try and revive him. It was _him _that cut off the man's leg, so it's gotta be _him _that keeps him alive. Katjaa hasn't come down the stairs yet, and Brenda's gone upstairs to see how Mark's faring through all of this, so it rests to Lee alone to get this shit done.

Pressing hard again and again, Lee gets a short sigh of relief as he thinks that Larry takes a short breath…

_BANG!_

Everything stops as the bullet goes right through his brain; leaving a big hole in Larry's head as Kenny puts the gun back into his pocket.

"…you son of a bitch…"

"I _had to_, and you know it!" Kenny yells, shoving Lee to the side as the man tries to come after him. "He was dead the second you chopped off his leg! We both knew that this wouldn't work! I was doing what had to be done, like always! If we want to survive this shit, then we have to have the balls to do the hard thing! Or at least one of us has got to…"

"Fuck you, Kenny," Lee snaps, breaking off from his grip as his fist tightens in anger. "You talk a big game, but could you do the _hard thing _if it was Katjaa or Duck?!"

"It won't…" Kenny starts, but gets cut off as he sees some more walkers coming from the fields out back. "Shit! Do these fuckers ever quit?! Grr… Andy, Danny – come with me! Lee, stay here and… fuck, you know what? Do whatever you want! It's not as if you give a rat's ass anyways…"

Deciding not to aggravate the fisherman any further, Lee simply closes his eyes and breathes heavily out of his nose; leaning against the counter and listening as the three of them head out to the back. He can't believe how far they've fallen – he and Kenny from the beginning got along great. They helped each other out, had each other's backs and were there for each other when they needed each other.

But now? This will undoubtedly divide the two leading men, and this time it might not even be repairable. Lee could see a hint of distrust and doubt in Kenny's eyes; as if he's lost any respect that Kenny may have had for him. Lee would give anything for that not to be the case, as just earlier today, Kenny was actually giving the man some friendly advice.

That's not the worst part of this whole thing, though. No, the bigger question has to be this:

How the actual fuck are they going to explain this to Lilly?

Rubbing his hands through his short hair, Lee shakes his head as he gazes upon the corpse now sitting upon the table. Larry was a dick, through and through… but he cared, Lee could tell. It appears as though he never blabbed about that whole _murderer _secret to everyone else in the camp, which really surprises him considering their usual animosity towards each other.

But he wasn't exactly a bad guy, Lee can see that now. Kenny isn't either – he's just trying to do the right thing, but just makes a whole lot of rushed, non-thinking decisions a lot of the time.

He can only hope that Lilly will be able to forgive them – they owe her the truth, no matter how badly it's gonna hurt.

"_AAAAGGGHHHH!" _come a couple of screams from the hallway, as Lee sprints into action once again. Forgetting about Larry for the moment, he rushes in to find that Katjaa and Ben are both struggling to break away from (what else?) more walkers. Ben must've forgotten to close the door behind him, and Katjaa must've let her guard down as the walkers took their chance.

One walker has tackled Katjaa to the ground, and within a few seconds she'll become nothing more than another statistic.

Ben's getting caught in the corner; surrounded by two walkers as he desperately tries to hold them off. "Lee… please!" he begs, as Katjaa looks over to Lee with just as much pleading.

Realizing that he can't save them both, Lee has to make yet another gut-wrenching decision.

_**Who should he save? Katjaa or Ben? Please vote in the reviews! :D **_


	6. New faces and new problems

_AN: Just a couple things before we get started here. First off – holy shit, 15 reviews for one chapter?! Man, thank you guys so much! That's cray-cray! :D _

_And second off, in case people were still wondering, yes, the St. John's are good guys in this story – weird, I know. Rebloxic and I just wanted to go more into detail about the farm, get in some much-needed character development and whatnot._

_Anyway, that's it. Enjoy!_

The first thing that Lilly does as she awakens is violently cough and woozily open her eyes as the world slowly comes back to her. The whole room is spinning, which is never a good sign in and of itself, but at least she's not getting burned alive anymore…

Wait… she's _not getting burned? _How is that possible?

Rolling onto her side, Lilly winces as she lands on a sore spot that she didn't realize she had. Figuring that she must've hit her rib cage somehow, the hard-nosed woman tries to shake off the pain as she pats down onto her pockets.

"…what?" she says to herself, urgently checking around and panicking when she comes up empty. All of that medicine that she had before she passed out? Gone; completely barren and empty.

"Fuck…" she whispers, standing up slowly as to not disturb the injury any further. Deciding that freaking out is only going to make things exponentially worse, Lilly takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a second. In… and out. In and… out. Those therapy sessions that she had been forced into by her boss must not have been total bogus after all.

Why was she forced to go to therapy? Ha, take a wild guess!

Glancing around the dimly-lit room, Lilly decides to retrace her steps. Let's see… got attacked by the helicopter… chopper crashed into the building… building went up in flames… couldn't find –

"Carley?!" she calls out, not seeing her companion anywhere in this dark, dreary box that she's in. Is this still the pharmacy? No, it couldn't be… there aren't any shelves around, and she would've been able to smell the embers by now.

Suddenly, her ears perk up to the sound of some muffled noises coming from the outside. Making her way over to a little door, she tries her hand at unlocking it, but the handle simply spins in a circle and is completely useless to her.

"_Hold on a sec… it only works from my side for some reason…" _a new muffled voice calls to her from the other side of the door. Lilly, fearing the worst, narrows her gaze as she waits behind the door; fist raised in preparation. They won't take her alive!

As the person shimmies around with the door for a couple of seconds, it's suddenly opened by a rather short, Persian man with short hair and thin facial hair.

Lilly immediately punches the man square in the nose and hears it crack as her knuckle connects.

"OW! SHIT! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" he swears, quickly backing up as he holds his nose tenderly with both hands. "Are you fucking insane?! I think I'm bleeding now! God damn it that smarts!"

Stepping out into the sunlight, Lilly tries to get her bearings and demand where Carley and the meds are, but all of a sudden this other tall woman appears at his side and holds a gun straight at her head.

Lilly, seeing as though she doesn't have a weapon of her own, reluctantly raises her hands in surrender.

"On your knees! Now!" the woman demands and Lilly obliges as she slowly does what she's told. "Hands behind your head! No sudden moves or I'm pulling the trigger!"

"Ugh… you couldn't have done it a little earlier?" the shorter man jokes, wincing as he tries to wipe the blood that's rolling down to his chin. "Oww… Man, you punch hard, you know that? What did I ever do to you?"

_Great, _Lilly thinks to herself bitterly, _I'm surrounded with no way out. Awesome planning skills, Lilly…_

Showing her distaste for her captive, the tall woman shakes her head before trying to tend to the Persian man at the same time. "You alright, Omid?" she asks, glaring angrily at Lilly as she simply blows out a raspberry and sits there. Maybe these people aren't as bad as she had thought.

Chuckling, Omid shrugs his shoulders as he softly rubs the tender spot on his nose. "Despite probably having no cartilage left there, yeah, I'll be alright. I was getting bored of my old look anyways."

"Can I say something?" Lilly tries, but getting cut off as the tall, angry woman aims her weapon even more menacingly.

"You're lucky I didn't just shoot you right away! What the hell were you thinking?!" she demands, interrupting Lilly as she tries to explain herself. "Actually, you know what? No – I don't even care, you little ungrateful shit! We saved both of your asses from a burning building, and your _thanks _is to punch my boyfriend in the face?!"

"CHRISTA STOP!"

Looking up, Lilly sighs in relief as she sees Carley limping over towards them; a look of warning on her face as she shakes her head. It seems that the help has finally arrived.

"She's with me," Carley explains more calmly, earning the stink eye from Omid's girlfriend. "Put the gun down, Christa. Lilly's friendly… well, kind of. She's on our side, is what I really mean."

Miss Caul manages to relax and slowly stand up when Christa reluctantly puts her pistol back into her pocket, but the woman looks less than pleased about the whole thing. Lilly can't really blame her, but she had her reasons.

Noticing that Omid's slightly hunched over and groveling in slight pain, Carley looks pointedly over at her comrade; knowing fully well that this was her doing. "Why? Just… why?"

"They trapped me in there!" Lilly excuses herself, pointing back towards a tiny shed that's barely got enough room to fit a car inside of it. "What was I supposed to do, Carley?! They could've been holding me for ransom for all I knew!"

"We _saved _your _lives!_" Christa reiterates, getting annoyed at her behaviour. "You wouldn't wake up no matter what we tried, so we kept you in there until you'd come out of it."

"Or if you turned and tried to eat us," Omid points out, causing Christa to roll her eyes and laugh bitterly.

"Yes, Omid – or if she _turned and tried to eat us_," she repeats, wanting to smack him but figuring that he's in enough pain as it is already. "You can always look on the bright side of things, can't you?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood a little, that's all."

Seeing that no harm's going to come her way by these two clowns, Lilly puts her hands in her pockets before turning to Carley with curiosity. "How'd you get out? I couldn't find you anywhere in the drug store."

Glancing over at the couple, Carley nods her head in appreciation. It looks as though they weren't lying after all, but Lilly's still and always has been weary of newcomers.

Out here, new people (or just people in general) can be even more deadly and dangerous than the walkers.

"Sooooo… what were you guys planning on doing?" Carley asks, flashing Omid an apologetic smile. "Did you have anywhere to go? Because we could always – "

"_Carley…" _Lilly interrupts firmly, folding her arms as she eyes the couple wearily. "The drugs I was carrying when you found me – where are they?"

Scoffing, Christa steps in before either Carley or Omid get a chance to do so. "They're with us, where they belong. And rightly so," she states, making Lilly's blood boil as she clenches her fists tightly. "We risked our own hides to save you, so it's only fair that we get the medicine. We need that stuff."

Stepping forward with a pissed off look on her face, Lilly gets all up in Christa's grill as Carley tries to break them up. The reporter tries to hold Lilly back as much as she can, but she's a lot tougher and stronger than she is, so Lilly practically swats her away.

"You _stole _them from us!" Lilly barks, sneakily snatching her rifle off of Carley's back and clutching it in her hands. "Our group needs those drugs to survive! My Dad's heart medication is in there, plus a few morphine packs! Our people are suffering, and you're just gonna take that shit away?!"

"We're _all _suffering!" Christa retorts, not liking this lady's attitude towards her and Omid. "Don't act like you're the only ones who've gotten the short straw – _everybody's _been dealt a shitty hand! We need this just as much as you do, so don't start…"

"Babe," Omid says calmly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder that immediately annoys the living hell out of her. "These guys could be just what we need… we can't do this on our own forever, you know that… Maybe we should give them back."

Christa, unable to believe what she's hearing, turns towards her boyfriend with shock written all over her face. "So let me get this straight," she says, gesturing to his bloodied nose, "we drag them out of the pharmacy, keep them alive, get punched in the face, and now you're saying that we should be _nice _to them? That's your answer for all this?!"

As the birds chirp overhead on this early morning, Omid shrugs as he feels the warm rays of sunlight heating the back of his noggin. Despite getting hit so violently, Omid knows fully well that there have been way too many close calls for them recently – he's certain that Christa knows this as well.

And if the weird cravings and irrational mood swings have been any indication, then they'd need a place to stay in order for…

"How's about this?" Carley proposes, letting go as Lilly's arms slump to her sides. "You two can come back with us – we're staying at a farm a few miles from here, and I'm sure a couple extra bodies won't hurt. We've got food and shelter, which is pretty much a miracle around this place. In exchange, we get the drugs for our group. What do you say?"

Mulling it over, Christa closes her eyes before coming to a solid conclusion. "We'll give you _most _of it," she says, choosing to keep some of the bandages and pain medication while handing over the rest of the bag. "Everything else is yours. If we don't like what we see, then we're walking away. _Alone._"

Strapping the bag around her shoulders, Lilly huffs in annoyance before slowly taking off down the road; the rest following in behind as Carley catches up to her friend.

Once she realizes that they're a decent distance away from Omid and Christa, and are more or less alone, Lilly decides to have a little _chat _with Carley; all the while shooting down a walker like it's her day job.

"I can't believe you agreed to that…" Lilly mentions, making sure that the noise didn't attract any other walkers around them. When she sees that it's clear, Lilly slides the gun back over her shoulders while keeping a close eye on the two newcomers. "We don't need them here! We've got enough problems with our own group as it is – you think adding two new assholes into the mix is a good idea?"

"You need to start trusting people more – they're gonna be good to have around. As far as I'm concerned, we could use a couple of fresh faces," Carley states her opinion as they start back up the hill out of the town. "Trust me, I've got a good feeling about this one."

"That's what you told me about Ben and that dead guy they brought in, and look at what happened – the guy came back to life and tried to bite Katjaa," she points out, wearing an all too familiar scowl as she shakes her head. "And what a waste of fucking space Ben's turned out to be. I'd rather have _Duck _on watch than that blithering idiot."

"…you don't really mean that, do you?"

"…no. Together I think they've got the combined brain power of a sloth."

Chuckling, Carley tries to come back with something about them just being kids and all, but even she has to admit that Lilly's got a bit of a point. "Well, it'll be different this time," Carley promises, although that doesn't really sell her case very well. "Just give them a chance, maybe you'll surprise yourself."

Looking over her shoulder to see Omid desperately trying to remove some gunk from his eyelid, Lilly sighs deeply and shakes her head.

"I highly doubt that I will," Lilly declines; so sick of being surrounded by idiots that don't have a clue what they're doing.

…

Omid, for his part, seems pretty pumped that there's actually a group out here that's not completely crazy for a change. Although he finds Lilly to be more than a little rough around the edges, Carley seemed friendly enough, and she's practically assured them that this new group will welcome them with open arms.

Honestly though, he'd probably end up saying yes to anyone who'd offer them a nice, dry roof over their head for a change. There's only so much camping that you can do before you've decided that enough is enough.

The man's had a lot on his mind lately, mainly consisting of making sure Christa's health is in tip-top shape while also maintaining himself for the joy that he's going to receive sometime soon. A baby… wow. He could hardly believe the news that Christa broke to him a little while back, but now that the day is coming sooner?

It's literally freaking the poor guy out to no end.

Omid doesn't know the first thing about being a dad, and to do it in these conditions?! How is he supposed to help raise a child in the middle of the apocalypse? It's never been done before… well, at least to his knowledge. The guy's pretty sure that walkers haven't been around throughout history before, but who knows? Maybe they just weren't talked about before!

Or even better – maybe they're the ones that killed off the dinosaurs! Can you imagine getting chased by an undead tyrannosaurus rex?! Just thinking about that makes Omid chuckle in childish wonder.

"Are you sure about this?" Christa suddenly asks him, bringing the guy out of La-La-land. "Omid, we were doing fine on our own!"

"You call getting chased out of a motor-inn by a pack of wild lunatics _doing fine?_" Omid questions, getting the shivers just thinking about it. That place was nice beforehand - nobody around, a big parking lot with a whole bunch of rooms to explore, couches sitting out in the open, and a big, old RV in case they ever wanted to go cruising.

But all that changed last night when they were forcefully removed from the one stroke of luck that they had in a long while. Bandits had come bursting from the forest and invaded the Travelier Motel. He and Christa barely made it out of their with their heads still attached to their shoulders.

Sighing, Christa stays silent and decides to follow Omid's judgement. He might not be right about everything, but he's at least right about _some things_ – and something is better than nothing!

Besides, it's not like they've got much of a choice now, anyways.

"It's good to interact with the locals, you know? Get a lay of the land," Omid starts, causing Christa to groan in annoyance. She knows it's coming – one of Omid's famous historical rants. "You know, back in the day, the area surrounding this town used to be nothing but farms, trees and – "

"Omid," Christa interjects, trying to sound as kind as possible, "just… shut up, sweetie. We need to focus out here. Never know what might be creepin' up on you."

Putting his hands in his pockets, Omid kicks over a stone with a sigh. He knows that she's probably right – after all, they barely know this place, being from San Francisco and all. Life was so much more relaxing back home in California, and Omid misses it _dearly_. They lived in a one bedroom apartment which wasn't the biggest in the world, but the view of the water and the Golden Gate Bridge more than made up for it.

It's a damn shame that their cat couldn't –

"Oh shit…" Omid gasps, putting his hand over his mouth as Christa looks over with concern. Carley and Lilly stop on the path and ask what the holdup's for. "Nothing, nothing! Don't worry about it! It's just… fuck, I totally forgot that Jamal was still in the room when we left…"

"Jamal?" Lilly questions, scratching her head in confusion. "Who's Jamal? Is he, like, your son or something?"

"Jamal's the cat," Christa chuckles slightly, embarrassed that this was even brought up. "We're actually from San Francisco – Omid wanted the _Great American Road Trip_, but of course I wouldn't let him bring the cat with us."

Looking at each other in silence for a moment, Carley and Lilly suddenly burst out laughing before turning around and shaking their heads; heading down the pathway as Omid turns a small shade of red.

"Great… now they think we're a couple of crack heads," Christa complains, rubbing her eyes tiredly as Omid shrugs his shoulders.

"Hey, look on the bright side," he suggests, trying to make light of nearly every situation he comes across. "At least we don't have to feed him anymore."

"Just shut up, Omid."

"Yes ma'am."

…

"Please…" Christa wheezes, having just spent a long time wandering around with no rest beforehand, "tell me… we're here already…"

"Yep, home sweet home," Carley announces, getting a look of relief from the newcomer.

As the four of them wander down the long driveway that leads up to the St. John's farm… Lilly feels kind of… kind of odd. Why does it smell like absolute shit around here? That can't be from cow manure or anything, since as far as she knows there was only one cow on the property.

No, this is different. It almost smells like… rotten, decaying bodies or some nasty shit like that. A bunch of the fences are bent over and not turned on, and it's difficult to tell, but a bunch of the barn looks like it's been ransacked by a bear.

Or, you know, a bunch of walkers, as the four of them notice at least a dozen of them all sitting in a smoking dogpile nearby. That's what that smell was – burning dead guys.

"Ugh… disgusting…" Carley remarks, scrunching up her nose as she looks upon the bodies. The walkers have all been put down, thankfully, but that's not exactly a welcome sight for people coming up the drive.

Especially when you're trying to convince two new people to join up with you.

"Are you fucking serious?" Christa deadpans, clearly not expecting to see something like this. "Why would you people keep the dead ones around like that?! Didn't you say you had kids around somewhere?!"

"Holy shit, you guys have kids?!" Omid interjects a little too excitedly. This rubs Lilly the wrong way, and the Persian man quickly retraces his steps and holds his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, I didn't mean it like _that! _I just meant that… well, shit! It's been ages since we've seen another kid around! Most of them are… well, you know."

Turning back around, Carley and Lilly are about to go inspect the pile for themselves, when all of a sudden Clementine spots them and comes rushing out the door; tears in her eyes as she runs straight towards Lilly.

Concerned, the woman widens her eyes as Clem comes barreling towards her; pressing her hands firmly against Lilly's stomach.

"Hey, now… Clem, what's the matter, kiddo?" she asks softly, always having had a soft spot for the girl. "What, did Duck finally catch you for putting bugs under his pillow?"

"Don't come in!" Clementine wails, shoving against her stomach with all of her might. Carley bends down to see what the problem is, but the young girl just shakes her head and can barely get the words out. "Just… don't! I…I don't want you to be mad!"

As Lilly meets the child's sobbing gaze, something tells the bossy lady that something's definitely not right around here. First off, why is she the only one out here? And second, why is Clem acting so upset about… something that she doesn't want Lilly to see?

A biting hunch gnaws away in the pit of her stomach, and suddenly Lilly starts to get scared; VERY scared, and so she tries to brush past Clementine towards the house.

"NOOOO!" she protests, trying to block her way to the house. Lilly, in response, simply picks the girl up by the stomach with indignity and hands her off to Carley; who's fighting to keep her calmed down. "NO, STOP! DON'T GO! PLEASE!"

"Easy, Clem, easy," Carley soothes, rubbing the poor kid's back as she sobs into her shirt. "Clementine, you've gotta tell us – what's going on? What happened here?"

Having given up on preventing Lilly from getting inside, the girl sniffles as the older woman slams the door wide open and rushes forwards. "It's… h-her… we couldn't save…. him…"

And all at once, everything clicks as Carley widens her eyes.

"Oh my god…" she exhales, as Katjaa steps out from the front steps with concern.

….

Completely frantic, Lilly runs up the stairs to try and find any sign of the man she cares about more than anything in this entire world.

"DAD?!" she bellows up the steps, opening one door as she sees Mark sprawled out on the bed. Ignoring him for now, she goes to all of the other rooms on the top floor as her breathing starts to get a little bit heavy.

Why wouldn't he be the first one to come see her?!

Sprinting down the stairs past Katjaa, Carley, Omid, Christa and a frightened Clementine, Lilly turns her head this way and that; checking the living room, the kitchen, the dining room – hell, even the bathroom. Everything's empty.

That only leaves one other place to check.

"Lilly, you need to calm down and think about this…" Katjaa tries her luck, still shaken up over her near-death experience last night. "We… we can just talk about this, alright? There's no need to go scaring the kids…"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK?!" she yells, her eyes growing wide and bloodshot as she slowly starts to put the pieces together. Seeing that there isn't anywhere else in the house that he could be, Lilly opens up the back door…

…and immediately collapses on the back steps.

"…Dad?" she whispers meekly, tears of rage and complete grief coming to her eyes as she gazes upon the small crowd gathered out back. Ben's jacket hangs loosely on a picket fence nearby, but all Lilly can focus on right now is the group at hand.

Kenny's got a protective arm around his son, the St. John's are all standing there awkwardly as they see Lilly approach… and Lee has a shovel in his hands; scooping up dirt.

Once he sees the look on her face, he knows that they fucked up.

"…Lilly, I…"

"NOOOoooOOOoOOooO!" Lilly screams out incoherently; her entire world shattering around her as she sees the still chest of her dad from his spot in the hole. Larry, her father, is dead as a doorknob.

And she… she didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

"Oh my god… oh my god…" she repeats, holding herself against the wooden frame of the house as her breathing becomes erratic. Her chest heaves up and down as she stares at the small dirt pile next to where Lee is right now, and all she can think of is… why?

When Lee takes one step forward to try and explain things, Lilly slams her fist violently against the side of the house; not caring that she's cut her hand open and left a small thing of blood on the wooden surface. Running around the side of the house and out into an open field of dying wheat and vegetables, Lilly couldn't care if every walker in the state heard her and came to get her.

At this point in her mind, getting killed would probably be a blessing.

"Why? Oh god… Damn it, WHY?!" she yells at the top of her lungs, tripping over an exposed root and laying in the dirt.

This just might be the thing that breaks her.

_AN: So… it was close, but Katjaa won by a tiny margin. I know that was a shitty explanation of how he died, but don't worry – we're covering that in the next chapter. We wanted it to be a sort of surprise at the end, you know? _

_No worries – we want to flesh this out as much as we can. Anyways, next chapter will be coming soon! _


	7. Pits of misery

With his mother keeping herself occupied with introducing herself to Christa and Omid, and his father just purposely trying to avoid Lilly at any costs, Duck manages to sneak out to the back where the two little memorials have been set up. The St. John's didn't have much of a problem of having these out for the group's loved ones; saying how it'd be stupid to try and drag two bodies all the way back to the motor-inn on their backs.

As he opens the screen door and carefully shuts it behind him, the boy wanders over in sadness, but also a little bit of curiosity. He'd never been to a funeral before, but that must've counted as one in his mind. The only things missing were an actual tombstone for the both of them as well as the crowd of crying, depressed friends and family to say goodbye to them.

Although he doesn't understand it completely, Duck still feels pretty bad that Ben didn't really have a family to say goodbye to him.

Walking over to the teen's memorial, Duck sighs sadly as he sees the boy's jacket folded up on the dirt mound by his feet; rustling in the wind every now and again. He never mentioned this to Ben before, but Duck actually found his coat to be one of the coolest things he ever saw. It's one of those high school jackets that the students wear – typically if they're trying to make themselves look _cool _or impress someone.

Picking up the fabric in his hands, Duck rubs the dirt off of the "SM" symbol stitched into the jacket. SM… he's not sure what that stands for, but Duck's positive that it's something incredibly awesome.

"Maybe for just a minute…" he says to himself, remembering how his parents taught him not to take things that don't belong to you.

But what would be the harm in trying the thing on for a little bit, right?

Sliding his arms through the sleeves and wrapping the letterman jacket around him, Duck chuckles a little bit at how big the thing looks on him. It feels like the times where he'd try to put on one of his Dad's old fishing jackets whenever he got bored.

Only this time, Duck cherishes the object like a priceless artifact. He may not have known Ben Paul for very long, but Duck considered him as a friend – to him, this makes him feel as if his friend might not be so far away after all.

"What are you doing?"

Quickly turning around, Duck widens his eyes as Clementine glares at him like a scolding mother. The boy's been caught red-handed and blue-sleeved.

"Oh, umm… hiya, Clem…" Duck remarks in embarrassment, holding up his arms through the sleeves. "I was just… umm…"

"That's not yours!" Clementine exclaims, jogging up to him as she looks sadly down at the memorials. "You have to give it back, Duck! That's Ben's coat!"

Feeling slightly ashamed, Duck lowers his gaze as he tries to come up with a suitable excuse. "Yeah… but it's all we've got left of him! I… I didn't want to forget about him…"

Opening her mouth to say something, Clementine slowly closes it again as she sees how much Duck actually cares. He cares about what happened to Ben, and he cares about the things that he did for the group within the short time they actually got to spend with him.

And with the way that Duck's holding the jacket close to his chest, it's almost like seeing a young child clutching onto their favourite blanket.

She can't take that away from him.

"Okay," she relents, giving him a curt nod. "But don't come crying to me if you get into trouble for taking it!"

"Crying is for babies!" Duck retorts, sticking his chest out to prove his _manliness_. "I'm not a baby! I can handle myself just fine!"

"Yeah, sure," Clementine rolls her eyes as she playfully sticks her tongue out at her young companion.

As much as Clem might find him annoying at times, she at least recognizes that the kid can be a really good friend. They'd play together all the time back at the motor-inn – whether it was colouring pictures, pulling pranks (typically on Larry), or listening to each other crack the lamest jokes of all time. She even started to read some of Duck's comic books that he kept on babbling about, and even found herself to _enjoy _some of them.

But don't let Duck know that, okay?

Over the past couple of days, however, their time for playing has been cut very short. Kenny and Katjaa rarely let their son leave their side with the way that things have been going on, and Clementine's usually forced to stay with one of the adults at all times (though she'd honestly prefer staying with Lee over any of them). The sad part is that they haven't really had much time recently to just be kids; instead having to be constantly scared of a walker attack or anything else that might be creeping nearby.

Duck straightens up a little bit and gulps as he sees Lilly slowly approaching the two of them; causing Clementine to shyly do the same thing. Not really paying them any mind, Lilly – with very glossy and red-rimmed eyes – simply walks up to her Dad's burial mound and rests her hand quietly on the memorial; careful not to disturb anything.

Looking over at Duck nervously, Clementine turns back to Lilly meekly and folds her hands in front of her. "Umm… Lilly?" she tries, but getting no response as the woman sits there emotionlessly. "Did… did you wanna be alone?"

"…yeah," she agrees quietly without making eye contact, "I think that'd be for the best…"

"…okay. I get that way too, sometimes…" Clementine remarks sadly, turning around with her friend in tow as they slowly walk back into the house. Duck still has Ben's coat wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

What neither of the kids realize is that Lilly is taking that _alone _thing a bit too literally.

…

"Need a hand?"

Twitching his moustache around, Kenny has half a mind to tell Omid to mind his own god damned business and scram. Is it really too much to ask for some time alone around here?! Jesus, it's like he can't even take one step without bumping into somebody in this house! All he wants is a bit of _space_.

But, as much as he'd want to do all of that stuff, Kenny knows that the new guy is only trying to help and make a good first impression, and he should at least give him a chance to prove himself. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of these two at first, but then again – who is he to judge?

Besides, it's not as if he can wheelbarrow all of these corpses out into the woods by himself.

"Yeah, actually," the fisherman admits, motioning to the bodies just as Omid was about to turn away. "Was just about to head out. _These dead _aren't gonna be able to move themselves."

Snorting with laughter, Kenny turns around with an arched eyebrow to see what's so funny to the Persian man. "Geez, we're like fucking Monty Python out here! _Bring out your dead!" _he exclaims in some weird attempt at a British accent. When Kenny glances over at him like he's completely lost his mind, Omid scoffs in disbelief. "Seriously? Nothing? Haven't you seen the Holy Grail?"

"Must've missed that episode," Kenny shrugs, picking up the wheelbarrow and struggling to move it forwards.

"_Movie_," Omid corrects, grabbing the second wheelbarrow as he follows Kenny down the pathway. "It was a movie."

"Are you gonna be like this the entire time?"

….

"Fucking hell…" Lee murmurs, sitting in one of the upstairs rooms as he rubs his eyes with his thumb and index finger. The dark, heavy bags under his eyes are clear indicators of a lack of sleep, but there's no way in hell that he'd be able to get any rest now even if he tried. Not after everything that happened last night.

Aren't people supposed to get nightmares in their sleep? What kind of world does he live in when the monsters from your dreams are actually _real? _

"Hey," Carley snaps him out of his thoughts; poking her head in through the doorway as Le looks up. "You, uh… busy right now?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Come on in," Lee beckons as he moves over on the edge of the bed to give her some room. Carley sits beside him with her hands in her lap. "Been a bit of a whirlwind around here lately, hasn't it?"

"That's putting it nicely," Carley comments with distaste, folding out the creases in her jeans as Lee deeply sighs. "So… mind telling me what happened last night?"

Chuckling with a shake of his head, Lee runs his hands through his hair. "Where would I even begin?" he asks rhetorically, trying to give out the main points so that he doesn't have to relive it too much. It was pretty painful for the guy. "Walkers surrounded the house – fences turned off, walkers marched in, you get the idea. They burst into the barn we were trying to hold up in, so Larry got the bright idea of driving them out by himself."

"So how did he…?"

Frowning somberly, Lee strains to think of the horrible shit that happened next. "Larry got bit on the leg… so I cut it off to try and save him," he explains, expecting the look of shock that Carley's now giving him. "I know it was risky, Carley – believe me, I do. But he didn't have any time to lose! It was either try something that might save his life, or just do what fucking Kenny did and shoot him right in the fucking head! Because you know, nothing says we're gonna help the guy like FUCKING MURDERING HIM!"

Realizing that he's unintentionally blowing up at someone who's only trying to help, Lee calms himself down before apologizing and lightly slamming a fist into the mattress. He's tried his hardest not to blow up since… well, since the time that the cops showed up to arrest him for the murder. That moment truly ruined his life, and Lee thought for sure that he'd end up spending the rest of his days locked up behind solid, metal bars.

But it seemed that fate had chosen a different path for him, and that path involved looking after a little girl in the middle of a dangerous, walker-filled apocalypse where they've gotten little to no food or supplies, death and destruction at every corner, and the constant need to check over your shoulder for the people surrounding you. Lee's still trying to figure out if prison would be a worse punishment.

Lee knows he has little to no right to berate Kenny about murder when he has done the exact same thing… and really, Lee got pissed for kind of selfish reasons, though he won't openly admit it. Honestly, as much as he'd tried to get along with Larry and try to prove that he wasn't as much of a danger to the group as he thought he was, the big guy was still a bit of a turd. He was a total dickhead, and everyone in the camp knew it.

No, the real reason he got so upset really was… well, because of Lilly, really. She's his friend, no matter how much they may argue and fight at times. And when he saw the look on her face as he saw what went on…

"You really care about her, don't you?" Carley comments, practically reading his mind as he sighs heavily.

"We got her dad killed," he remarks, realizing that he isn't exactly a saint in this regard either, "took him out back and started to bury him without even thinking about it. I can't imagine how she must've felt. What a slap in the face that must've been though – seeing me out in the back with a shovel in my hands. I'm such an idiot…"

Not really being able to come up with a suitable argument for that one, Carley says nothing as she waits for Lee to respond first. There seems to be quite a bit that he needs to get off his chest, and the reporter's willing to lend an open ear. She knows what it feels like to be hurt and distraught, and usually the best thing for her is for someone to just sit back and listen.

"Ben and Kat were trapped by a few walkers near the front of the house," Lee continues; his eyes filled with regret. "It… god, it happened too damn fast! I wasn't quick enough…"

_Flashback_

"_Lee, please!" Ben begs for his life; only one slip-up away from being a midnight snack. Katjaa's getting close to death, too, as she tries to keep the violent eating machine away from her face while looking to Lee for support._

_Quickly thinking over the consequences in his head as the repercussions of his choices flash in front of his eyes, Lee makes a split-second decision and heads over to Katjaa. Kicking the beast off of her and slamming its head to the wall, Lee opens the front door before slamming it against the walker's head repeatedly._

_Ben, saddened that he was neglected and left for dead, fearfully screams as the first walker takes a bite out of his thigh; ripping it to shreds as the pain becomes too much to bear._

_That pain is quadrupled as the second walker bites and rips a huge chunk of Ben's face off and chews on it hungrily. The teen no longer even looks human as Lee finally puts the two walkers down. However, the damage has already been done, and Katjaa guiltily tries not to look at the dying kid as he starts to have a panic attack._

"_Oh my god… oh my god…" he breathes out repeatedly, looking up into Lee's eyes questioningly. "W-why?! You… you could've…"_

_Absorbing all of this guilt into his very soul, Lee shakes as he gazes down at the dying form of Ben. This was on HIM, and it's gonna haunt the man for the rest of his days. He made the call, and it was his responsibility to save them both._

_But he was far too slow and far too careless to do so._

_Kenny, having just come back inside with the St. John's after hearing the commotion, widens his eyes in disgust before wrapping a comforting arm around his wife's shoulders. "Jesus, Kat… Are you alright?!"_

_Thanks to Lee, she gets to live on to fight another day, but Katjaa can't find the right words to express her gratitude right now. She's far too traumatized over watching that poor kid's eyes nearly pop out of his head as he started to get chewed upon, and she'll remember that gut-wrenching scream that erupted from the boy's lungs for the rest of her life._

_As far as Lee's concerned, this is his responsibility to take care of. There's nothing they can try in order to save Ben this time – you can't replace this._

"_Get out…" he whispers lowly, not turning to face anyone else as he picks up his pistol from the floor. In his haste to save the both of them, he had completely neglected the weapon when he booked it towards Katjaa. _

_That may have been the mistake that's costing Ben his life._

_Not saying anything more, Kenny, Katjaa and the brothers all go to the kitchen to leave Lee to what's coming next._

"_**We didn't make a choice that killed Shawn," **__he remembers telling those exact words to Kenny back in the pharmacy. How ironic that he's now feeling the exact same way that Ken did. __**"You think you did when you look back on it, but in a moment, when things are really out of control? You don't have any choice."**_

"_I'm sorry, Ben…" Le apologizes; his gut squeezing tightly when the boy shakes his head._

"_No you're not," he disagrees, not believing the man's lies any longer. "Not yet, man."_

_Wanting this to be over, Lee fires a shot into the poor boy's brain – ending his suffering once and for all. _

_However, Lee's suffering has only just begun._

"I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't picked Katjaa," Lee admits with a shudder, "then Kenny would've tried to kill me. There's no doubt in my mind about that."

Saying nothing else, Lee sinks into his own little pit of misery and guilt, while Carley just tries to take this all in as best she can.

Yes, somebody to just sit and listen may be a good cure for things like this, but this may be something that even Carley can't fix.

Depression can be one of the biggest holes to fall into, and it's damn hard to climb your way back out to the surface.

…..

"You're sure that you need this, sweetheart?" Brenda asks with concern, looking on as Mark nods with eagerness.

"Yeah… yeah that's good, thanks…" Mark murmurs as he glances over at the fresh morphine pack that's now hooked up to his arm. Wanting to fake the effects as best he can so that she'll leave him alone, Mark pulls off a half-smile and nods again in approval. "It's just, uh… good for the pain, you know? Bullet wounds take a while to heal up."

Frowning in slight concern, Brenda relents as she exits the room and lets Mark rest a bit longer. If the guy says that he's still in pain, then who is she to tell him that he's not? It's not as if anyone else can feel what Mark's going through, and she's learned to trust his word at this point. He's given her no reason to distrust him yet.

Looking over at her son, Andy, she nods as the two of them head down to the kitchen. It's about time that they discuss when it is exactly that they'll be asking this group to leave.

Meanwhile, back in his room, Mark eyes the drug dripping through the IV tube with want and desire. Call it an addiction if you wish, but the ex-pilot wants to absorb every single drop into his blood stream. The morphine helps him cope; helps him relax and become numb to the rest of his troubles. It's a beautiful feeling in his mind – to just sit back and relax as all of his worries just disappear.

Watching as the bubbles start to drip down, Mark longs for the drug too much to just sit and wait for it to take effect for the long term. Seriously, it's like watching the fucking grass grow!

Carefully, he takes his free hand and grabs the tube firmly but delicately; shimmying it back and forth as the drug falls down a little bit faster.

"Come on, come on…" Mark urges, going faster and faster as he licks his lips. That beautiful medication needs to start swirling around and messing with his head faster – he doesn't want to feel pain or loss or sadness anymore!

_Knock-knock-knock!_

"_Mark? Dear, are you alright in there?"_

"Jesus Christ…" he mutters angrily, getting pissed that somebody's trying to interrupt his new habit. He won't give it up after getting a taste of the good life, not now when the going is good! "SHUT UP! I'm… I'm fine…"

By the time Katjaa barges in, Mark has stopped squirming the IV around and is now simply relaxing on the bed; already starting to feel much better than he had before. Morphine is his friend… his companion against this cold, miserable existence.

As soon as Katjaa sees that the IV tube has ripped slightly and splashed all over Mark's clothes, she drops the needle she was holding and stares at the man; shocked at how loopy he's become in such a short time, and wondering if he could possibly fall any lower than he already has.

Mark's becoming a junkie.


	8. Recall on the motor-inn

Awaiting with bated breath, Lee, Christa and Carley glance at the doorway as Katjaa finally reappears. The sombre look on her face doesn't seem like a good sign.

"So… how is he?" Lee breaks the ice when nobody really knows what to say. He knows it's kind of a dumb thing to be asking given the circumstances, since they pretty much all can recognize that Mark's in a deep load of shit.

However, sometimes it's better to talk about these kinds of things than to just bury it under the rug.

Gently shutting the door behind her, Katjaa sighs deeply as she shuts her eyes for a brief moment. "Doesn't look too good, honestly," she admits, giving Lee a saddened glance. "The man's coming unhinged. That was at least a full pack of morphine that he had going through the blood stream, and for him to just force it down like that…"

Feeling a little bit out of place, Christa shuffles her feet awkwardly as she tries to think of something to say. Sure, she might not know this Mark person at all, having just gotten here and everything, but it wouldn't hurt to at least try and make a good first impression. Who knows what could happen should this group start questioning people's motives?

"Is there anything we can do for him?" she questions, having heard the commotion from downstairs. "I don't suppose using _more drugs _to counteract this would be a great idea, would it?"

Shaking her head, Katjaa rubs her arm in discomfort as she places the used needle onto one of the small side tables scattered throughout the house. The St. John's sure do have a lot of furniture. "Giving him more antibiotics will just couple with the addiction he's got. There's only one real thing we can do," she explains knowingly as Carley, Christa and Lee all nod in understanding.

They're going to have to have an intervention, and eventually cut him off of the medication.

"It should start the healing process, but…" Katjaa cuts herself off, "who knows what'll happen? Mark could come out of this perfectly fine, or go bouncing off the walls. Cutting him off too quickly might cause his body to go into shock, so we need to be especially careful here. Taking away small amounts would probably be the safer route to take. Baby steps, you know?"

"Is he… you know, up for visitors just yet?" Carley asks, frowning in slight disappointment when Katjaa shakes her head. "Alright, well I'll try and coax him out a little bit when he's more settled. In the meantime, we should probably all do something productive around the farm. And Lee… I think there's someone that you need to go talk to."

"Carley…"

"She's breaking, Lee. Lilly's one tough girl, but right now she needs support from someone; someone she _trusts_," Carley adds for emphasis, poking him in the arm as she starts to walk away with Christa in tow. "Come on, we'd better get downstairs before Danny starts to think we're all plotting behind their backs or something…"

Scoffing, Christa rolls her eyes as she heads down the stairs, her head nearly hitting the chandelier with how tall she is. "I'm seriously starting to reconsider our friendship here, Carley…"

"You love me and you know it!"

As Katjaa mentions how she's going to check in on her son, Lee bites his lip as his nerves are shot. He can't help but anxiously look out the window as he sees Lilly outside; slouched up against the barn with a dead look in her eyes. Clementine emotionlessly swings herself back and forth on the swing set as Lee sighs and rubs his tired eyes. He had never outright forgotten about Clem's parents, as that has been in the back of his mind the whole time.

But now he's got _two _people close to him with huge problems, and he's not entirely sure if he's going to be able to handle it.

_This should be fun, _Lee thinks to himself bitterly, shaking his head before walking as slowly as possible down the stairs.

* * *

><p>"So… that's it? We're just gonna leave them all right here?" Omid questions with a hint of disturbance in his voice as he watches Kenny dump the bodies like a pile of dirt. He can hardly believe how calm the man seems while he's doing this, as if Kenny's had to do this sort of thing a million times beforehand.<p>

Perhaps that assumption is correct.

"Ain't no way that I'm straying too far from the farm," Kenny replies with a grunt, heaving the last few stragglers as he motions for Omid to do his part. "Your turn, man. Come on now, just dump them and let's get out of here. These woods aren't safe with all of them bandits around."

"Then you saw them too, huh?" Omid concludes, scrunching up his nose at the disgusting smell of rotting limbs and flesh. Needing a little bit of help, Kenny takes one of the handles as they push the bodies out of the second wheelbarrow as a team. A nice, neat pile of corpses is created as Omid incessantly tries to wipe his hands off on his jeans. "Christa and I got chased off by them beforehand. Real scary shit, man," he shakes his head, getting the shivers as he turns his head away from the officially dead walkers. "We had a pretty good system going for a while; kept pretty safe for just the two of us out on our own. We even found this really sweet setup nearby… but that didn't even last a day before those assholes came and kicked us out…"

Not saying anything, and partly wishing that he could have at least five minutes of peaceful silence, Kenny picks up his wheelbarrow and turns on his heel back the way they came.

Omid, feeling a little bit discouraged, follows suit as he quickly tries to catch up to him. "Don't you wanna know where we were before?"

"Not particularly, no," Kenny shrugs with a sigh. "But I'm sure you're bound to tell me anyways."

Taking that as acceptance, Omid grins as he recalls their _amazing find_. "This place was a fucking gold mine, dude. Not nearly as nice as the farm, mind you, but it was pretty damn close," he recalls, clearly feeling proud of his and Christa's accomplishment. "Most of the supplies were gone, but the place was practically a fortress! Seriously, it had two floors with loads of rooms, beds, couches outside, dumpsters to block off the entrances…"

Kenny's eye nearly twitches as Omid starts to ramble on; describing in almost word-for-word detail about where his group was holed up in before. The odds of something like this happening within the span of just a couple of days is almost too much for the ex-fisherman to take in, but he has to know the truth for himself.

Kenny needs to know for sure if their backup plan just got fucked over indefinitely.

"This place you and Christa were at," Kenny interrupts, turning to face Omid with a serious stare, "did it… did it have a big, old RV somewhere in the middle of the parking lot?"

"Yeah, though it looked more like a rust bucket from what we could see."

"Was there a sign out in front? A name? Broken lights?" Kenny probes as his suspicions start to become increasingly confirmed. If this is all true, then their group could be in some mighty hot water.

Mulling it over for a bit as Omid rubs his chin thoughtfully, he shrugs his shoulders in response. "Come to think of it, yeah, I think there was," Omid says curiously. "The name escapes me, though… Ugh, what was it called? The… Tram? The Trolley? The Train…?"

"Travelier?! Was is called the Travelier Motel?!" Kenny demands, shaking Omid's shoulders as he tries to get a straight answer out of him. When Omid snaps his fingers and nods his head, Kenny nearly slaps himself in the face with exasperation. "Jesus fucking Christ, Omid! That's where we were staying before! That's our home! Why didn't you same something earlier?!"

"I tried! You're not the easiest person to talk to, you know!" Omid defends, causing Kenny to groan in frustration.

Leaves rustle in the wind as Kenny tries to wrap his head around this sudden news. The motel? Taken over by bandits?! Even though they're currently at a much better and safer place than that motor inn could ever hope to be, it's still unnerving to know that their place was taken over so easily, and it's getting Kenny questioning whether or not they can really stick it out in Georgia over the long haul. What would've happened if they were all still there? Would something have happened to Katjaa? To Duck? Kenny would never be able to forgive himself if his own carelessness had somehow gotten them hurt or worse.

Hmm… maybe it's time to start thinking about alternatives in terms of where they want to go… The coast actually sounds like a plausible scenario. He'll have to take that up with Kat when he returns.

For now, though…

"Whoa, hey now, come on! Where are you going?!" Omid hollers, watching as Kenny ditches the wheelbarrow and heads in a completely different direction from where he assumed they were headed.

Twitching his bushy moustache around in annoyance, Kenny keeps his eyes peeled in determination as he holds his pistol out in front of him; as if he's trying to prepare for even the tiniest noise coming from the dried-up bushes surrounding them. "I reckon that we ought to pay these bastards a visit," he remarks, choosing to ignore the groan that Omid makes from behind him. "Move your ass, Omid! If what you're saying is true, then them bandits just fucked us all over big time! We've got some scouting to do!"

"Why the hell did I agree to come out here with you… stupid, stupid, stupid…" Omid mutters quietly as he too drops his wheelbarrow and tries to keep up. Hopefully the St. John's won't mind too much about missing their equipment.

Right now, there are more important matters to attend to.

* * *

><p>The nice, calm and sunny weather doesn't match Lilly's mood this afternoon, and the solitary peacefulness of the dairy does absolutely nothing to quell her aching mind. How can things appear so remarkable outside when on the inside she feels like nothing but a massive pile of shit? It's almost as if the entire world is judging her; mocking her by constantly reminding the woman that despite everything looking so relaxing and carefree, in reality it's anything but.<p>

Her father is dead, and there's absolutely nothing Lilly can do about it. Just like that. Within a blink of an eye, the last thing she had has been violently taken away from her.

Lilly doesn't really know what the point is anymore. Of anything.

"…this seat taken?" Lee asks as he approaches, but Lilly doesn't answer as she continues to stare out in the distance absentmindedly. Knowing that he's dealing with a bit of a delicate situation here, Lee nods curtly and sits closer to the barn door; getting a whiff of all sorts of nasty fumes. With Maybelle now gone, this dairy's gonna have a tough time remaining as productive as it once was.

Food is going to especially become a bigger issue, seeing's how the cow was literally their only source of milk, butter and cheese for miles around. Lee's not so sure that deer hunting is really gonna last them that long.

"I know that it's… probably a terrible time for this," he admits, folding his hands together as he stares at the dirt, "but I figured you might want some company. I know how awful it must be for you right now, and – "

As Lilly gives him a stern look, Lee gulps before nodding his head in acceptance. Apparently she doesn't need to use words to communicate with him. Sometimes words are just puffs of hot air that dissipate in the atmosphere and are never heard from again. Sometimes talking is just a massive waste of time.

However, right now it's all that Lee Everett can offer.

"You've got every right to be pissed, Lilly. And I'm truly, truly sorry for what happened to you. Really, I am," he says sincerely. "Larry and I… we might not have gotten along that well, and as a matter of fact I think he wanted me as far away from the group as possible… but he honest to god cared deeply about _you_. We both know that. And if he were still here… he'd want you to keep going…"

"…why?" she questions, her throat dry and hoarse after having practically screamed her lungs apart earlier this morning. "You say that like it's so easy, Lee… That I can just put this behind me and move on. Move on to what? Another motor-inn? Another shit-box out in the woods where we can hide until the next of us gets bitten?"

"You don't have to forget him – take all the time you need to grieve," Lee tells her soothingly, knowing from experience what it's like to lose those that you care about. His parents and brother's deaths nearly had him in a chokehold. "And none of that's going to happen to us. Not if we work together and get through this thing. Larry would – "

"How did he die?" she quietly interrupts, looking him dead in the eyes for an explanation. "Just tell me… please… I need to know for sure. It'd… I deserve to know that much at least…"

Insides clenching, Lee struggles with his inner demons as he tries to give her an answer that won't destroy the already fragmented pieces that this group may have had before all of this. Lee hasn't spoken to Kenny at all since last night, and a part of him wants to bring the guy down to a watery grave and isolate the man even further. It's no better than he'd deserve, at least in Lee's mind, and it could be so easy to accomplish. Lilly already dislikes the old fisherman enough as it is, so it wouldn't take much more than a spark to tip that animosity over the edge. Although this would be much more than a spark – it'd be a god damn inferno of fiery rage.

But is that really what Lee wants? Would it be some kind of justice in telling her how Kenny shot her father in the head while Lee was trying to resuscitate him? What point would it serve other than to ruin the group even more than it's already becoming, especially during such a difficult period like this?

"…Larry got bitten on the leg," Lee answers solemnly, trying to keep his tone as smooth and neutral as possible. "He sacrificed himself so that the rest of us could get out of the barn. I'm so sorry, Lilly, but there was nothing any of us could've done. I… I had to put him down…"

After scanning his eyes for any trace of lying or deceit, Lilly sniffles a little bit before slowly nodding her head and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. She has no idea that Lee had just told her what she _wanted _to hear, given the circumstances.

Standing up, the woman breathes heavily through her nostrils as she places her hands on her hips; staring intently out at the horizon as she reaches a final decision. "I'm leaving," she announces, which startles Lee quite a bit as he widens his eyes in disbelief. Noticing his reaction, Lilly adjusts her statement as she slings her rifle over her shoulder. "I just… I just need some time alone, okay? A little bit of time to… to clear my head."

"Lilly, we _need _you here. All of us do."

"I'm not fit to lead anymore, Lee. We both know that," she admits softly but firmly, despite the group technically having decided on most things as a collective before. Lilly did act as a sort of voice for the hard decisions, however – the ones that nobody else really wanted to make. "And you guys can handle yourselves just fine. I'll be at Warner Robbins for a couple of days. There are some things that I need to look into…"

Standing up himself, Lee watches as the woman slowly starts to walk away down the path once again. It never seems as though Lilly can stand to be at the dairy for more than short periods at a time.

"Clem broke him, you know that?"

Turning around curiously with red-rimmed eyes, Lilly appears puzzled as she waits for a further explanation.

"She actually got on the level with him," Lee continues, grinning slightly over at the eight year old on the swings as he puts his hands in his coat pockets. "I couldn't believe it either, truth be told. Out of everyone here, I guess all it took was a kid to finally get him loose. Clem told me earlier how… how proud your dad was of you, Lilly. He always was."

Fixing herself up slightly as she glances over at the little squirt, Lilly doesn't really know how to respond to that. Not too many people have tried to really connect with the Cauls ever since they arrived in the group back at the drug store, which really hadn't surprised either of them.

But this? Seeing how much some of the people really care? It's… kind of sweet. It's a pretty nice feeling, if she's being completely honest.

Maybe she should try to connect with people more in that way as well. Just… not right now.

"Lee?" she calls back with an appreciative look. "…we're good. Okay?"

Nodding with a bit more relief than when he had come outside, Lee continues to stand there until Lilly disappears into the trees and out of his sight.

"God damn…" he sighs, glad to at least have that awkward conversation out of the way.

* * *

><p>"…Mark?" Carley whispers inside of the guy's room, poking her head in as she sees that he's finally re-awoken. However, he has definitely seen better days in terms of looks – the wounds haven't completely healed yet, and more than likely the drugs are still swimming through his veins.<p>

All in all, the guy really hasn't had a very good week.

"I thought you guys may have left without me," Mark jokes weakly, managing to pull off a small smile as Carley shuts the door closed behind her. "I'm guessing you heard about all that went down last night then, huh? What a mess that was… Larry and Ben…"

Nodding in confirmation, the ex-reporter slides a chair across the floor as she plops a squat close to his bed; feeling the man's forehead with the back of her hand as Mark jumps a little at the sudden change in temperature.

"No kidding," she agrees, feeling awful herself in fact. More so about Ben, however, since although she didn't exactly get to know him for very long, he seemed like a pretty innocent, if not a little clueless, young man with a lot of potential. Ben still had his entire life ahead of him. "But actually, I came up here to check on _you_. You gave us quite the scare earlier, you know that?"

Feeling uncomfortable, Mark dodges her gaze as he picks up his glasses and places them on; making the room a lot more visible than it was prior. This is a discussion that he really, _really _doesn't want to have.

"I'm fine, Carley. Really," he insists with a wave of his hand, "no need to worry about me."

"Mark, you practically downed an entire bag of morphine! That's not something we can just ignore here!"

Slightly irritated that she's telling it to him like it is, Mark tries not to get angry as he fluffs up his pillow. Carley's just trying to help, and he knows that, but what business is it of hers?! Why has everybody suddenly just taken an interest in what he's up to when he doesn't want people nosing around after him?! Why now, and why not back when he could actually contribute to the group?

The irony isn't lost on him, that's for sure.

"Look, I don't mean to bother you, but… I care about you, Mark. I don't want to see you like this," she exclaims softly, trying to wedge her way into his inner circle. "We all want you to get better, but you have to let me in. I can't help if you won't allow me to."

When all he does is stare at the sheets blankly, suckered in far too deep to want to stop now, Carley sighs as she realizes that this isn't just going to be a one-shot deal as she had hoped it would turn out to be. This is a delicate scenario that she's dealing with here, just as Katjaa said before. Perhaps taking it nice and slow is the best remedy she can ask for.

"…can I at least ask you something first? If you won't talk about this right now?" Carley persists, being used to badgering people after having spent a large amount of her time conducting television interviews in the past. "Kenny told me that you shot that bandit back when all of you were trying to hide. Why would you try something like that? Wouldn't it have been easier just to hide it out?"

Frowning slightly, Mark shakes his head in disagreement as it becomes his turn to dish out the serious stares. For once, the man's gonna have an actual say and an actual opinion.

He at least appreciates that Carley's giving him the opportunity.

"Those bandits – they were all wearing similar gang masks," he explains briskly, still reeling from his encounter with them. "I've met members of the bandit camps before. If you guys hadn't come along when you did, it would've been either them or the walkers that got me first. They were camped near where I was staying in beforehand."

"Well, where _were _you beforehand, exactly?"

"Oh right… forgot you were still at the motor-inn," he corrects himself, itching the back of his head as he shrugs his shoulders. "I was up at Warner Robbins – the air force base."

* * *

><p>Blood pumps heavily through the two survivors' veins as their jog turns into a run upon Kenny's request, seeing as how they're getting really close to the motel now. The sun's slowly starting to go down, which means two things for Kenny and Omid – their significant others are gonna be pissed that they went so far without telling anyone, and they may end up having to find their way back in the dark of night.<p>

Neither of those outcomes are particularly desirable, but it's a chance that at least one of them insists on taking.

"It's not every day that your house gets broken into," Kenny had remarked earlier, going over in his head what he plans on doing if the fuckers are still actually there.

While neither of them have any particular love or attachment to the place, especially not Omid, neither of them can deny that having the motor-inn would be a much better alternative to having everyone sleep out under the trees and unprotected. And with the RV still inside of that place, even though it's not fully operational just yet, it still gives all the more reason for their group to want the place back.

"Don't suppose you could just… walk up to them and… ask them nicely?" Omid questions, breathing heavily as they inch closer to their goal. "Maybe we could… bake them a bunch of cookies or something! Or maybe just go up to the front doors and say that this was all just a big misunderstanding!"

"I don't think these guys are the _bargaining _type," Kenny remarks with a sneer; brushing small tree branches away from his eyes as a few of them smack Omid right in the face. Their pace halts as the motel appears some one hundred feet away from the two of them. "Oh, you sons of bitches…"

Just as Omid had recalled, the Travelier motel is indeed operating under new management. The place has largely been trashed with garbage tossed around carelessly on the ground, the couch has been stained with what Kenny hopes is just beer, a bunch of the rooms have been ransacked, and all in all the place just looks like a complete shadow of its former self.

"What the fuck did they do to the RV?!" Kenny hisses quietly, pointing to the side as Omid squints his eyes and shrugs his shoulders.

"What's the big deal?" he quizzically asks. "It's just a little spray paint! It's not gonna kill you or anything."

"So you'd be okay travelling in an RV that's labeled _Metalheads_ _4 Life_?"

"I'd kind of prefer if they called it the Mystery Machine or something along those lines, but yeah! That works too!" Omid smirks, finding it amusing how worked up Kenny is getting about this. "We could be rock stars, man! Driving around, signing autographs and smashing up walkers' heads with our electric guitars! Who would ever fuck with someone like that?"

Staring at him for a moment in complete disbelief, Kenny narrows his gaze as he gets his feathers ruffled more by the second. How could one person possibly be so unfocused in the middle of all of this?!

"If we weren't trying not to get spotted by assholes with guns right now," he mentions as he rolls his eyes, "I'd probably smack you right upside the head. Let's just concentrate here, alright? I can only see two of 'em – one over by the couch, and one on the roof of the RV…"

Glancing ahead for himself, Omid nods a little wearily as he spots the man on the roof blowing out a puff of smoke from his cigarette. "Looks that way for now," he agrees, "but there were definitely more than two of them when Christa and I first saw them. There were a at least a dozen of them lined up outside. Maybe they're inside some of the rooms. So… what do you want to do?"

Taking a deep breath, Kenny considers his options. There's no way that he'd be able to get a decent shot off at the guy sitting on the couch, but the oblivious jackass on the roof is more than within firing range.

Shooting him from here might take one of them down and draw the rest of them away from the motor-inn to search for the source of the shooter, but on the flip side is that they could possibly be caught out in the open.

To kill, or not to kill – that is the question.

_**So what do you guys think? Should Kenny take the shot or no? Please leave a review and cast your vote into the fire – err, I mean put them in with your reviews! Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long wait :3 **_


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